THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE AND TRAVELS OF RABBAN SAWMA,
ENVOY AND PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE MONGOL KHANS TO THE KINGS OF EUROPE,
AND MARKOS WHO AS MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III BECAME PATRIARCH OF THE
NESTORIAN CHURCH IN ASIA

Sometime Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities,
British Museum Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences Lisbon;
and Corresponding Member of the Philosophical Society of America

With 16 plates and 6 illustrations in the text

LONDON

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY

Manchester, TORONTO, Madrid LISBON, BUDAPEST

First published in 1928

[All rights reserved]

Made in Great Britain

Printed by Harrison & Sons, Ltd., St. Martin's
Lane, London, W.C. 2

Assyrian International News Agency

Books Online

www.aina.org

special thanks to www.nestorian.org for scanning
portions of this book.

TO

THE RIGHT REVEREND

FREDERIC LLEWELYN DEANE, D.D.

BISHOP OF ABERDEEN AND ORKNEY

BISHOP BELOVED OF THE OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE BATTLE FLEET AT SCAPA, MASTER OF THE CRAFT OF THE APOSTOLIC
"FISHERS OF MEN," GREAT FISHER OF FISH IN ICELAND, AND TRUE AND LOYAL
FRIEND OF ALL THOSE "THAT GO DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS AND OCCUPY THEIR
BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS"

WITH THE REVERENCE, SYMPATHY AND AFFECTIONATE ESTEEM
OF THE TRANSLATOR

PREFACE

THE present. volume contains a complete
translation of
the Syriac History of the two Nestorian Chinese monks, Bar Sawma of
Khan Balik (Pekin) and Markos (Mark) of Kawshang. This remarkable
document is of great interest and importance, for it contains a mass of
information about the Il-Khans of Persia and their dealings with the
Mongol Christians which is found nowhere else. It describes very fully
the events which brought about the downfall of the Nestorian Church in
China, Central Asia and 'Irak al-Ajami, and as the statements in it are
those of a contemporary eye-witness of the events which he describes,
they are of very special value. It may be noted,' too, that it supplies
us with an example of serendipity, which is far more remarkable than
any mentioned in the old Persian story of the three princes of Sarendib
(Ceylon).1
Saul the
Benjamite set out to find his father's asses; he failed to find the
asses but he found a kingdom. The two Chinese monks set out to go to
Jerusalem to pray at the Tomb of Our Lord in Jerusalem, where they
hoped to obtain the remission of their sins and to obtain peace in
their souls. They never reached Jerusalem, but the younger monk, Mark,
found himself made first a Metropolitan Bishopand later
Patriarch and Catholicus of the Nestorian Church, the dominions of
which extend from China in the East to Palestine in the West, and from
Siberia in the North to Ceylon in the South. The elder monk found
himself appointed first Visitor-General of the Nestorian Church
throughout Asia, and later Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
'Argh6n Khan to the King of Byzantium, the Pope of Rome, the King of
France, and Edward I, King of England. The History of these monks well
illustrates the workings of Divine Providence in the destinies of the
men who are selected to be its instruments.

The Syriac text of our History is, on the whole,
good, and the
translation of it given herein has been made as literal as possible:
there are, however, a few passages in which the text is either
defective or garbled, and these have been carefully pointed out. The
translator of the original Persian text into Syriac assumed that his
readers would be well acquainted with the general history of the
period, and therefore did not trouble to supplement his work with the
details which the occidental reader needs to understand the narrative.
I have therefore collected a number of the most essential facts, both
historical and archaeological, and grouped them in the series of
paragraphs which form the Introduction, instead of printing them at the
foot of the page in the usual way. This arrangement will enable the
reader to peruse the translation uninterruptedly. It seemed to me to be
unnecessary to annotate the passages which deal with the relics of the
saints, and their resting places, for the credulity of many Christian
peoples in the XIIIth century is too well known to need mention. It is
surprising to find our author solemnly recording that he was shown the
stone on which Peter the Apostle was sitting when the Cock crew!

My thanks are due to the Trustees of the British
Museum for
permission to reproduce a page of Brit. Mus. MS. Orient. No. 3636; to
Dr. Lionel Barnett for permission to examine the Uighur MSS. under his
charge; to Sir John Murray, K.C.V.O., for permission to reproduce the
two plates illustrating the Mongol Paizah, which are given in Yule's
immortal edition of the Book of Ser Marco Polo; to Mr. G. H.
Dring, Managing Director of Bernard Quaritch, Ltd., for permission to
reproduce six plates from Mr. F. R. Martin's invaluable Miniature
Painting and Painters of Persia, 2 vols., London, 1892; and to Mr.
A. D. Waley, B.A., of the British Museum, for permission to reproduce
the portrait of Kublai Khan from his work on Persian Art.

The portrait of Chingiz Khan I owe to Mr. E. T. C.
Werner's article
in the Journal of, Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society, vol. 56, 1925; the three illustrations of the
Nestorian Stele at Hsi-an-fu to Havret's great monograph on the
subject; and the view of the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd at Al-K to Mr.
C. J. Rich's Narrative of a Residence is Koordistan, vol. 2,
London, 1836, p. 99.

This work has been read in proof by Dr. C. H. Irwin,
General Editor
of the Religious TractSociety, and I am indebted to him for
several friendly suggestions, which I have gladly adopted.

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE.

48, Bloomsbury Street,

Bedford Square, London, W.C.I.

July 17, 1928.

INTRODUCTION

ACCORDING to the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Bar
Hebraeus (ed.
Abbeloos and Lamy, tome iii, Col. 451) two monks, of Uighur origin,
were sent from China "by the command ofthe great Mongol king
Kublai Khan and ordered to go and worship in Jerusalem."2 It is not clear
whether the
word I translate by "command" (pukdana) is to be understood here
as a mere permit to travel westwards from Pekin, or as an Imperial
Edict ordering the monks to go to Jerusalem. But it is well known that
the Mongol Khans wished to gain possession of Jerusalem, and there can
be no doubt that the two monks were sent to the West as propagandists,
and to obtain the help of the Christian kings of Eastern Europe. The
ease with which they travelled shows that they were emissaries of
Kublai Khan, and that they were armed with proofs of his authority.

Bar Hebraeus goes on to say that the Uighur monks
arrived in
Kurdistan, but were unable to proceed further west because fighting was
going on and all the roads were blocked. They turned aside at Maraghah,
where Mar Denha, who owed his appointment as Patriarch to Dokuz Khatun,
the wife of Hulagu Khan, was staying, and made themselves known to him
as members of the Nestorian Church. After some conversation with them
the Patriarch, for reasons of his own, consecrated one of the monks,
whom he called Yahbh-AllAha, Metropolitan of China. When Mar Denha.
died (1281) Yahbh-Allaha was elected Patriarch of the East, and Bar
Hebraeus, though admitting that the new Patriarch was not a learned
man, testifies to the goodness of his disposition, the soundness of his
belief, and his friendship for the Jacobites. But he tells us nothing
about Yahbh-Allaha's fellow-monk, or what became of him, and as Bar
Hebraeus died in 1286, his Chronicle does not contain any
account of the Patriarchate of Yahbh-Allaha, which lasted until 1317.
On these and many other interesting points '','dealing with the history
of that period scholars remained without information until 1887.

In March, 1887, Mr. Salomon, a Lazarist Chaldean of
kurdistan, saw
in the hands of a young Turkish Nestorian in Tekhama, a Syriac
manuscript which he borrowed from him and read, and then had a copy of
it made at Urmiyah. The contents of the manuscript turned out to be a
narrative of the histories and travels of the two Uighur monks who are
mentioned by Bar Hebraeus. Mr. Salomon sent his copy to Father Bedjan,
who found that it contained many mistakes, and he noted the omission of
words in several places, and many passages in which the readings were
doubtful. Having corrected the spellings of proper names throughout,
and added correct vowels and notes in Syriac on the heresy of one of
the monks, he printed an edition of the text, and the eminent Syriac
scholar Rubens Duval read the proof-sheets. This edition appeared at
Paris in 1888. In the same year (November 29), the British Museum
purchased from the Rev. J. H. Shedd, of the American Mission, Urmiyah,
a well-written Syriac manuscript of seventy folios containing a good
text of this narrative which Bedjan had published a few months earlier
in the year. This MS. isOriental 3636, and a facsimile of a
page of it forms the frontispiece (Plate I) of this book.

Soon after this Bedjan had access to other copies of
the Syriac
narrative in London and elsewhere, and in 1895 he published a revised
edition of this work entitled Histoire de May Jab Alaha, Patriarch,
et de Raban Sauma, at Paris and Leipzig. According to Baumstark (Geschichte
der Syr. Lit., p. 326) most of the MSS. used by Bedjan were copied
from the MS. in the possession of Rabban Yonan, the Nestorian Patriarch
of Tekhama, which came from the village of Minganish in Kurdistan: The
account of the joint travels of Rabban Sawma and Yahbh-Allaha was
written by the former in Persian, but the author of the abridgment in
Syriac and the Life of Mar Yahbh-Allaha in Syriac is unknown. He was an
eye-witness of many of the events in the Patriarch's life which he
describes, and he probably wrote in the first half of the XIVth
century. A short biography of Yahbh-Allaha was published in Arabic,
with a Latin translation, by Gismondi, Amri et Slibae de
Patriarchis Nestorianorum commentaria, 2 vols., Rome, 1896.

The first scholar to call attention to the great
importance of the
History of Rabban Sawma and _ Markos was Professor H. H. Hall, in the Proceedings
of the American Oriental Society, vols. exxvi-cxxix (1885-88)
and the journal of the same Society, xiii (1889). Portions of
the History were translated into Fallaehi by the American missionaries
at Urmiyah and published by them monthly in their periodical in 1885,
1886, 1887. Articles on it appeared in 1889 by Duval (in the Jour.
Asiat., tome xiii, p. 313 ff.), Lamy (in the Bulletin of
the Belgian Academy; tome xvii, p. 223), Van Hoonacker (in the Museon,
tome viii) and Noldeke (Literarisches Centralblatt, col.
842-44); Hilgenfeld discussed the text in his Bemerkungen (Jena,
1894); see also Baumstark in Oriens Christianus,
tome i, P. 385.

The first translation of Bedjan's text was made by
the Abbe Chabot
and was published in the Revue de l'Orient Latin, tome i, p.
567 ff., p. 61o ff.; ii, pp. 73-142 and 223-43. This translation was
published in book form with the title Histoire de May Jabalaha III,
Paris, 1895, and seeing that Bedjan's revised edition of the Syriac
text did not appear until the end of 1895, must have been made from the
first edition of the Syriac text published in 1888. M. Chabot added in
the form of notes a valuable commentary containing lengthy extracts
from the standard Histories of the Mongols by Howorth and Mouradja
D'Ohsson, and from the Pauthier's edition of the Ser Marco Polo's
Travels published in Paris in 1865. In two Appendixes M. Chabot gave,
in Latin, translations of the letters which passed between the kings of
the Mongols and the Pope and the kings of Byzantium, France and
England, and a Latin version of an important letter which Mar
Yahbh-Allaha III sent to Pope Benedict XI in 13o8. The short notes
throughout M. Chabot's note are full of carefully selected
ecclesiastical information, and add greatly to the value of the
translation of the Syriac text which we owe to this indefatigable
scholar.

Professor H. H. Hall possessed a copy of the Syriac
text of the History
of Bar-Sawma and Markos (Mar Yahbh-Allaha) in 1885, and published
translations of portions of it in America, as we have seen, but his
articles were not obtainable generally. The translations which the
American Missionaries published in Zahrire dhe Bahra in
1885-87 were useless to anyone who could not read Fallaehi, the modern
Syriac dialect of Kurdistan. It was Chabot who first made the contents
of the history of Kublai Khan's monkish envoys available to the general
public throughout Europe. But his work has been out of print for many
years, when during the winter of 1924-25 I made the translation printed
in the present volume. The arrangements which I made to publish it in
1925 broke down, and it was not until the summer of 1927 that I handed
my manuscript over to the Rev. C. H. Irwin, D.D., Chief Editor of the
Religious Tract Society. My whole translation was in type by the
beginning of March, 1928. From the Literary Supplement published
by The Times on April 12 last, I -first learned
that Professor J. A. Montgomery, of the University of Pennsylvania, had
published the History of Yaballaha III, New York, 1927, and
when I obtained a copy of the work I found that he had given an English
rendering of nearly the first half of the history of the two Chinese
Nestorian monks. The present volume contains a translation of the whole
History, and is the first complete translation published in
English.

But it must not be forgotten that the
publication of any
complete translation of this History has I only been made possible by
the labours of Father Bedjan on the Syriac text. When, many years ago,
he was copying manuscripts in the British Museum for his Acta Sanctorum
he showed me the manuscript of the History which had been put into his
hands, and his own copy of it which he was preparing for publication.
His patience was truly Oriental, and the skill which he displayed in
supplying the words which had been omitted, and correcting the
orthography, and explaining the unusual meanings given to certain words
would have done credit to Payne Smith, or William Wright, or Noldeke.
And in connection with such textual work the name of Professor H. H.
Hall should be remembered.

Now the History of the two Uighur monks
which Bedjan has
published is one of the most important Syriac works known to us, for it
contains a mass of historical information which is found nowhere else.
It throws great light on the history of the Dynasty of the Il-Khans of
Persia and their dealings with the Christians who were their subjects
in the XIIIth century, and supplies us with a description of the events
that brought about the downfall of the Nestorian Church in Persia, and
Central Asia, and Mesopotamia. The narrative of the travels of the two
monks. is of unusual interest, and parts of it remind us of the
fabulous stories of adventurers and their successes which are found in
many Oriental books. In it we see two humble Christian monks setting
out on a perilous journey of some thousands of miles, across waterless
deserts and difficult mountains, apparently with the sole idea of
visiting Jerusalem that they might pray at the Holy Places there and
obtain pardon for their sins and absolution. Fate decreed that they
should never reach Jerusalem and forced them to halt at Maraghah,
several hundreds of miles from the Holy City. But it ordered events in
such a way that the younger monk, Mark, became first a Metropolitan
bishop and then Patriarch of the East, and the spiritual head of all
the Nestorians in China, Central Asia, India, Persia, Armenia,
Mesopotamia, and Syria, and the elder became Visitor-General of the
Nestorian congregations in the East, and the ambassador of Arghon, the
Mongol king, to the Pope and to the kings of Byzantium, France, and
England. Linguistically the narrative is of considerable importance,
for it affords new material for the student of Semitic philology,
especially in the matter of Syriac syntax..

The events of the last few years in Kurdistan have
brought the
Nestorians and their Church prominently before the minds of Western
peoples, who have heard and read with sorrow of their sufferings at the
hands of their inveterate enemies the Kurds and the Turks since the end
of the Great War. In Urmiyah and the country round about the atrocities
perpetrated on the Nestorians by Hulagu Khan at Baghdad in 1258, and,
by Timur-i-Leng in 1390, were repeated, though on a smaller scale, and
all the great work which European and American Missionaries were doing
among the Nestorians was brought to a standstill, and the mission
houses and printing presses destroyed. It is hard to understand the
insensate hate which the Turks and Kurds have displayed towards the
Nestorians, for time after time Turkish Pashas and other officials have
warmly praised to me their good qualities and sterling abilities.

During the parts of two winters (1887-88,1890-91)
which I spent in
Mosul I made the acquaintance of many of the Nestorians and visited
their villages of Tall Kips (Stone Hill), Balnaye, Tall Uskuf (Bishop's
Hill) and Al-Kosh. At the invitation of Kuss Yukhannis, the Prior, I
spent a night in the famous monastery of Rabban Hormizd (see Plate II),
and on the following day examined the monastery and the churches; on
the pillar of one of these could still be seen the names of C. J. Rich
and his wife, and the name of Justin Perkins, the founder of the
American Mission at Urmiyah. The Prior pointed to a little stream at
the bottom of the valley which had been the means of destroying over
1,000 MSS., Arabic, Syriac, Karshuni (i.e. Arabic written in Syriac
letters), and Greek, which the monastery once possessed. During an
attack of the Hamawand tribes in 1850 these had been removed and hidden
in a small building down in the valley. In February the snows melted,
the stream swelled and rushed down with much violence that it swept
away the little building, and the water destroyed the MSS.

I found the Nestorians most hospitable and kindly,
frugal and
hard-working and very intelligent. The men are strongly and solidly
built and wake splendid farmers, and for power of work and ' endurance
they have no equals in Mesopotamia; p, the women are the prettiest in
the country. Men and women alike make good emigrants, especially those
who come from the large village of Tall Kipa. Writing in 1925 Mr. H. C.
Luke, in his interesting book Mosuland its Minorities, says
that the future of the Assyrians (i.e. Nestorian Christians) is not
assured, but it is to be hoped earnestly that the Great Powers will
find some portion of the Nestorian's ancient country in which they may
be settled once and for all and allowed to follow their ancient
religion and serve God in peace and security.

But to return to the anonymous history by the two
Uighur monks. As
said above M. Chabot's French translation has been out of print for
many years, and his book is scarce and hard to obtain. It is, moreover,
not well known in England, for the only account of any part of it in
English is the short summary of a few pages of Chabot's French
translation given by Mr. Luke (Mosul and its Minorities, London,
1925) in his chapter on Prester John. Professor P. Y. Saeki has made
known, in English, the triumph of the Nestorian Church in China in the
VIIth and VIIIth centuries, and when he published his book it was
suggested that I should make the story of its downfall in the XIIIth
and XIVth centuries available in English to the general reader. I have
therefore made the translation printed in the following pages from the
revised Syriac text given by Bedjan in the second edition of his work.
The style of the Syriac is, as was to be expected in a version made
from the Persian, somewhat abrupt, and it has often been necessary to
add words (in brackets), to make the writer's meaning clear. In this
Introduction are given. briefly the most important facts
about Nestorius and his so-called heresy, and the history of the rise
and progress of Nestorianism in Western and Central Asia and China;
references to the works of recognized authorities have been added where
necessary. Such information is usually given in footnotes, but as
frequent reference to footnotes distracts the attention of the reader
and interrupts his continuous perusal of the narrative it has been
decided to relegate all explanatory matter to the Introduction.

THE NESTORIAN CHRISTIANS AND THEIR DOCTRINES

According to ancient and wide-spread traditions
Christianity was
first preached to the Medes and Parthians and Indians by THOMAS, or, as
he is sometimes called, "JUDAS THOMAS or the Twin "(' ),one of
the Twelve Apostles. Though exact historical evidence in support of
these traditions is wanting, there seems to be no good reason for
doubting that the Apostle actually made his way into the countries to
the east of Assyria and Babylonia, and died or was martyred in one of
them. The literary facts are summarized by Lipsius,
Apostelgeschichte, Bd. i, p. 224 ff. The Nestorians and Jacobites
believe that Thomas evangelized Parthia, Media, Persia, and India, and
that he went on a special mission to Malabar and converted the people
there. The Brahmans, jealous of his success, put him to death about
A.D. 52 at a place called KELAMINI, where he was buried; his
remains were translated to Edessa by Bishop EULOGIUS(387-96).
The most recent and fullest edition of his life and acts is by BEDJAN,
Acta Martyrum, vol. iii, Paris, 1892, pp. 1-175; and see Bar Hebraeus, Chron.
Eccles., sect. ii, Paris, 1877, cols. 3-12.

The first writer and traveller who attempted to find
the historical
base of the tradition that St. Thomas preached in India was the great
Venetian, Ser Marco Polo, who accepted the tradition unhesitatingly: A
contemporary of his, John of Monte Corvino, buried his friend, Friar
Nicholas, in the Church of St. Thomas at Maabar, i.e. Malabar, in the
year 1292-93. The oldest form of the tradition says that the Saint was
martyred and buried upon a "mount," and to this day the "Great Mount
"of St. Thomas and the "Little Mount "in Madras are well known. The
true site of the martyrdom was the Little Mount, and a church
dedicated, to the saint existed there in very early times. The
Portuguese built, or restored, a church on the Great Mount, and in 1547
a stone slab, with a cross sculptured upon it and an inscription in
Pehlevi running round the edge of it, was discovered whilst repairs
were being carried oat. A rough sketch of the stone is here given. The
exact meaning of this inscription is, not clear, and the translations
of it made by Pehlevi scholars differ; Martin Haug read it "Whoever
believes in the Messiah, and in God above, and also in the Holy Ghost,
is in the grace of Him who bore the pain of the Cross." The Syriac and
other Oriental versions of the martyrdom of Thomas state that the
Indian king whom he converted was called "Gondaphorus," and as coins
and inscriptions of this king have been found, there can be no longer
any doubt that Thomas did preach in India. The various forms
which the tradition has taken are discussed by Yule in his translation
Ser Marco Polo, vol, ii, second edit., p. 338 f.

The work of Thomas in India is said to have
been
continued by ADDAI, one of the seventy-two disciples of our Lord. He
visited Edessa in the reign of ABGAR, whom he converted, and having
built churches for this king, he and two disciples called MARI and
AGGAI set out and preached the Gospel in the East. On his return to
Edessa, he was put to death by the king, a son of ABGAR, whom he
succeeded. He was buried in a church in Edessa which he had built for
ABGAR. The Syriac text of the "Doctrine of Addai" in its most complete
form; and an English translation, is given by Phillips, The Doctrine
of Addai the Apostle, London, 1876. AGGAI, the disciple of Addai,
preached the Gospel in ARMENIA, ADHORBIJAN, ASSYRIA, MEDIA, and in the
country at the head of the Persian Gulf and in the neighbourhood of
AL-BASRAH, which later became the seat of a Nestorian bishop. He
returned to Edessa and, the king ordered him to return to his old trade
as a weaver, and when he refused to do so had him killed. A short life
of Aggai, in Syriac, has been printed as a footnote by Bedjan in his
Acta Martyrum, vol. i, p. 51.

Nestorian writers say little about Aggai, but they
revere MARY, or
MAR MARI, as he is generally called, greatly. According to Bar Hebraeus
(sect. ii, col. 16 f.) he left Edessa after AGGAI was killed, and went
and preached in ASSYRIA and SEN'AR (not Sennaar in Nubia), where it is
said there were three hundred and sixty churches! He then went to the
city Of SELEUCIA and established himself as the head of the spiritual
community which he called into. being in Ctesiphon (A1-Madain of the
Arabs). The people were MAGIANS, but MARI converted and baptized manyof them, and built a church and healed many sick folk by the Sign
of the Cross. He spent fifteen years in Ctesiphon, and then went and
preached in the neighbouring districts for eighteen years. He died in
his monastery in BADRANA, which was called Daira dhe Kfini (Dorcene),
and was near SELEUCIA. His life and acts have been published by
Abbeloos, Analecta Bollandiana, tome iv, pp. 50-131; Bedjan, Acta
Martyrum, vol. i, p. 45 ff.;and see Raabe, Geschichte
des Dominus Magi, Leipzig, 1893.

The successors of MARI carried on the good work
which he and Addai
had begun in Mesopotamia and the countries further to the east, and in
many towns in Syria prominent Christians practised asceticism. But the
Nestorians owe monasticism in the fullest sense of the word to Egypt,
and the founder of monasticism in the country east of the Jordan was
MAR AWGIN. A life of this famous ascetic, in Syriac, has been published
by Bedjan (Acta Martyrum, Paris, 1892, tome iii, pp. 376-480),
and from it and the summary in English given in my edition of Thomas of
Marga's Book of Governors, London, 1893, vol. i, p. cxxv ff.,the following facts are taken: Awgin belonged to an Egyptian family
who came from Clysma (Kolzum), an island near the modern town of Suez;
he was born in the second half of the IIIrd century, and he died when a
very old man, about 370 (?). He was a pearl-fisher, and when he had
followed his trade for twenty-five years he went to the 'monastery of
Pachomius in Upper Egypt and baked bread for the community. The
brethren discovered that he possessed spiritual gifts and could work
miracles, and when he left the monastery of Pachomius and departed to
Lower Egypt seventy of the brethren accompanied him. With these he set
out for Nisibis, and they crossed the river Maskas and camped by the
side of it for a few days. Thence he and his party went to Mount IZLA,
which lay to the south of the city, and lived in a cave there for
thirty years. The brotherhood increased rapidly in number, and the 350
monks who lived with AWGIN devoted themselves to good works. Awgin
worked many miracles, and healed many sick folk in Nisibis and gained
great influence there. About this time Jacob, Bishop of Nisibis, is
said to have discovered a plank of the Ark of Noah on Mount Kardo, and
from it Awgin had a cross made which he placed in his cell.

When Julian the Apostate arrived with his hosts at
Nisibis on his
way to Ctesiphon, Jovianus, one of his captains, visited Awgin and
begged him to pray that God would break speedily, the head of the
wicked man, i.e. Julian. When Sapor II took Nisibis he sent for Awgin,
and treated him with great honour, and the holy man performed a miracle
in his presence. The Magians began to dispute with him, and he proposed
that a fire should be lighted, and that one of them should go and stand
up in it. Sapor ordered the fire to be lighted, and commanded one of
the fire-worshippers to go and stand up in it, but none of the Magians
would approach the fire. Seeing this, one of Awgin's monks went and
stood up in the fire for a long time, and he was not hurt and his
garments were not scorched. Then Sapor accepted the God of Awgin as the
true God, and asked him to heal one of his sons who was possessed of a
devil; Awgin expelled the devil, who confessed that he was the god of
the Magians, and exposed the wickedness of his followers. Sapor's joy
was great, and when he asked Awgin how he should reward him the holy
man replied, "O Lord King, we ask neither gold nor silver from the
realm of thy empire, but we beg that thou wilt command, and that there
shall be given unto us little places by the roads and ways, that we may
build upon them convents and monasteries in which we may relieve the
wants of strangers. And give us the power to go to Beth Laphat, and to
the country of the Huzaye, and to build monasteries and convents where
we please."

Sapor gave Awgin permission to do these things, and
a formal
authorization in writing, stamped with the king's seal, was handed to
him a little later. He lost no time in making use of Sapor's Edict, and
soon after he received it seventy-two of his monks assembled at the
foot of Mount Izla, and having been blessed by Awgin, each of them set
out, holding his cross in his hand, to found a monastery in the place
whither Divine Grace should lead him. The names of these monks are
given by Bedjan (op: cit., tome iii, p. 473) and are transcribed by
Budge (Book of Governors,- vol. 1, p. cxxx). With
the monks went forth Mart Thecla and Stratonice, sisters of Awgin.
Awgin died on the list day of the month Nisan in the year of the Greeks
(?) 674, and was buried in a "double cave, under the altar which he had
built under the throne of the Divine Mysteries," and 3,000 monks
attended his funeral. There seems to be a mistake in the date, for
A.GR. 674=A.D. 363, whilst his History suggests that he lived for some
years after 363. From the monastery of Awgin on Mount Izla went forth
Rabban Jacob of Lash6m who, according to Thomas of Marga, was the
founder of the famous monastery of Beth Abhe, probably towards the
close of the IVth century.

Now the doctrines which the Nestorians held and
preached were not
invented by Nestorius, but were derived by him from the teaching and
writings of THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA ( ), a town on the Pyramus, between
Tarsus and Issus, now known as Messis. Theodore was the son of
well-to-do parents, and was born at Antioch about 350; he received a
liberal education and was converted to Christianity by his close friend
and fellow-townsman JOHN, who was later known as CHRYSOSTOM. He devoted
himself with great zeal to the study of the Scriptures, and read all
day and prayed all night, and led a life of stern asceticism. When
still a very young man he fell in love with a beautiful maiden called
Hermione, and to the regret and horror of the Church of Antioch
proposed to marry her. Chiefly as the result of Chrysostom's appeals he
abandoned this idea, and devoted the rest of his sternly ascetic life
to the study of divinity, and the writing of commentaries or
expositions of the Books of the Old and New Testaments. In Nestorian
writings he is usually called "Mepashshakana", i.e., the
"Expositor"(Budge, Book of the Bee, P. 140). Early in his
literary career Theodore adopted the method of the rational school of
scriptural interpretation which had been put forward by CARTERIUS and
Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, and it was to these distinguished men that
he owed his unusual views about the Person and Natures of Christ.
Theodore died in 428 aged 78 years; he was Bishop of Mopsuestia from
394 until his death.

According 'Abhd-Isho he composed forty-one volumes
of commentary on
the Scriptures, the greater number of which were translated into Syriac
by Ma'na, a Persian of Beth Ardashir, who lived in Edessa in the first
half of the Vth century. His translations added greatly to the fame and
reputation of Theodore, and wherever they were known they served to
spread abroad the views which were adopted and preached by Nestorius,
and believed by many to be his own. The real founder of Nestorianism
was Theodore and not Nestorius. The fullest account of the writings of
Theodore, and a list of manuscript authorities and printed editions are
given by Dr. Anton Baumstark, Geschichte der Syrischen Literatur, Bonn,
1922, pp. 102-104. After his expulsion from Edessa Ma'na went to
Persia, where he was appointed Metropolitan, and prepared the way for
the acceptance of the Nestorian heresy in Persia and the neighbouring
countries (Duval, Syr. Lit., p. 348).

THE HERESY OF NESTORIUS

NESTORIUS was a native of Germanicia in Syria, but
the year of his
birth is unknown. He was probably educated at Antioch where he imbibed
the doctrines of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus.
He entered the monastery of St. Euprepius at Antioch, and soon became
famous for his learning and the austerity of his life. He had a fine
voice and his discourses were eloquent, and his reputation as a
preacher spread far and wide and found its way to the Court at
Constantinople. Already at this period he had many enemies who declared
that he was vain, haughty, and arrogant, but Nestorius cared little
about what his enemies said. When SISINNIAS, Patriarch of
Constantinople, died at the end of the year 427 Theodosius II appointed
Nestorius his successor, and he was consecrated in the spring of the
following year (April 10). Nestorius had come to the conclusion that
the views of APOLLINARIS, Bishop of Laodicea about 370; were invading
the Church of Constantinople, and he determined to put an end to his
heresy if possible. Apollinaris attributed to Christ a body and a soul,
and to these he added the divine Logos. As a result all the divine
attributes were transferred to the human nature, and all the human
attributes to the divine, and the two merged in one nature in Christ.
Thus he could argue that the Logos was Crucified. He made Christ a
being who was neither all God nor all man. He declared the orthodox
view of the union of full divinity with a full humanity in one person
to be nonsense; in short he denied the completeness of Christ's
humanity, and the existence of a rational human soul in Him. See
Neander, Doctrine History, vol. i, p. 334f.; Harnack, History
of Dogma, viols. iii and iv; Lietzmann, Apollinaris von
Laodicea and seine Schule, Tilbingen, 1905.

Soon after his elevation to the Patriarchal throne
Nestorius is said
to have addressed Theodosius II in one of his sermons thus: "Give me,
my prince, the earth purged of heretics, and I will give you heaven as
a recompense. Assist me in destroying heretics, and I will assist you
in vanquishing the Persians." Without delay he attacked the Arians, the
Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the Macedonians and other sects, and
tumults and riots occurred in many places. Whilst this was going on, a
presbyter called ANASTASIUS, whom Nestorius had brought from Antioch to
assist him, began to promulgate his theories on the Nature of Christ,
and so provoked much controversy. He was a firm adherent to the views
of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and a bitter opponent of the Arians and of
all those who were addicted to the cult of the Virgin Mary, and who
persisted in calling her or the “Mother of God.ö Anastasius made
this heresy the subject of one of his controversial sermons, in which
he said "Let no man call Mary Theotokos: for Mary was but a woman, and
it is impossible that God should be born of a woman." This sermon
created great excitement in Constantinople, and the surprise and
disgust of the clergy and laity were great when, instead of rebuking
Anastasius, Nestorius himself preached a set of sermons in which he
defended him, and amplified his statements, using the arguments and
sometimes the actual words of his teachers Theodore of Mopsuestia and
Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus. The text of these sermons will be found in
the works of MARIUS MERCATOR, an African layman who flourished in the
first half of the Vth century; see Migne, Petrologia Latina, vol.
xlviii; see also Galland, Bibliotheca Patrum, vol. viii, 1772.

When the report of the sermons reached Egypt, Cyril,
Patriarch of
Alexandria, saw that he had a golden opportunity for attacking his
enemy Nestorius, and he entered into an acrimonious controversy with
him about the Nature, or Natures of Christ. He sent letters and
extracts from the writings of Nestorius to Pope Celestine, and ordered
his clergy to attack the doctrines of Nestorius, and he "squeezed "the
Alexandrians to obtain sufficient money to bribe the officials of the
Court at Constantinople to take his side. In 43o Nestorius addressed
two letters to the Pope in which he set forth his views, but Cyril
succeeded in making the Pope side with him, and Nestorius was told by
the Pope in plain language that the doctrines described in his letters
were rank blasphemy. Little by little Cyril, unscrupulous in word and
deed, won the Emperor and the Empress Eudoxia, and Pulcheria, and many
bishops and monks over to his side, and in 430 the Pope in Rome
excommunicated Nestorius, and Cyril did the same at Alexandria. In
November of the same year the Emperor gave orders that a General
Council be held at Ephesus at Whitsuntide 431. The Council was held in
due course, with the result that owing to the machinations of Cyril,
Nestorius was never heard, and he was condemned to expulsion from all
his ecclesiastical offices by the votes of 1g$ bishops. This is not the
place to describe the intrigues of Cyril, and the hesitation of the
Emperor to accept the decision of the Council of Ephesus; it is
sufficient to say that in the end Nestorius was deposed (October, 431)
and was ordered to return to the monastery of St. Euprepius at Antioch.
Cyril continued to intrigue against Nestorius, and, with the help of
John of Antioch, succeeded in getting him banished to Egypt (435).
Every bishop who supported him was deposed, and all the writings of
Nestorius were ordered to be burnt. It is said that Nestorius was
chased from one part of Egypt to another, and that to get rid of him
out of the country the civil and ecclesiastical powers combined
sent-him to the Oasis of Khargah in the Western Desert. During one of
his journeys he was captured by the Blemmyes, who took him with them to
the Thebaid and then' set him free. His freedom helped him little, for
when he arrived at Panopolis (Akhmim) the great Coptic archimandrite
SHENUTI and his monks persecuted him in every possible way, for they
were, of course, Jacobites, and anathematized Nestorius and all his
works. Nestorius was alive in 439, and he probably lived a few years
more; some think that he died as late as 454. Where he died is not
known, and no record of his burial-place seems to have been kept.

The enemies of Nestorius carried out the congenial
task of burning
his writings so thoroughly that very few of them remain. æAbhd
IshoÆ, Bishop of Nisibis, the Syrian bibliographer who died in
1318, mentions certain Letters and Homilies, the Tragedy,
, and Letters to Cosmas, the Bazaar of Heraclides,,
and a Liturgy, which is still extant in the Nestorian Church.
The most important of all these for us is the Bazaar, which is
really the Apologia of Nestorius, and throws great light on the man
himself and his beliefs. The pseudonym of the book preserved it from
destruction, and to it we owe the existence of the Syriac version of it
which was discovered by Dr. N. Goussen. The text has been published by
Bedjan, Le Livre d'Heraclide de Damas, Paris, 1910; a
French translation of it by F. Nau appeared in Paris in the same year,
and an English translation by Mr. G. R. Driver at Oxford in 1925. For
other works dealing with Nestorius, see Baumstark, Syr. Lit., p. 117.
There is reason to think that Nestorius himself never held or preached
the doctrines of the later Nestorians, and that he was sacrificed to
save the faces of Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch. In the light
of the information derived from the Bazaar of Heraclides the
heresy of Nestorius assumes a different form, and both Mr. Bethune
Baker (Nestorius and his Teaching, Cambridge, 1908) and Mr. F.
Loofs (Nestorius and his Place in Christian Doctrine, Cambridge,
1914), show from it that Nestorius has been misjudged.

The banishment of Nestorius was ordered by the
Emperor at the
instance of Cyril and John, Patriarch of Antioch. The latter had
formerly been a strong supporter of Nestorius, but Cyril having
modified, or said that he had done so, his views about the Nature of
Christ, John produced a formulary which satisfied the orthodoxy of
Cyril and made him abandon Nestorius once and for all. Whereas
Nestorius asserted the existence of two Christs, the formulary
confessed only one, which was both divine and human. The two Natures which
were spoken of in the formulary were indeed separate in mental
conception, i.e. considered apart from Christ, but that after their
union in Christ, the nature of the Son was but one, as belonging to
one, but to One as made man and incarnate. To Nestorius, two natures
meant two natures existing separately, in one who was God and in one
who was man. John of Antioch, while admitting that Godhead and Manhood
in Christ might be regarded as intrinsically different, yet
unequivocally acknowledged His Person to be one.

But in spite of the alliance between Cyril and John
of Antioch, the
doctrines of Theodore of Mopsuestia, which form the base of
Nestorianism, continued to spread in all directions and especially in
the countries to the east of Edessa. The man who did most to produce
this effect was IHIBHA, or HIBHA (Graecized IBAS), who became Bishop of
Edessa in 435. As he had been one of the translators of Theodore's
works he was charged with Nestorianism, and though acquitted by the
Synods of Tyre and Berut he was condemned by the or Robber Council of
Ephesus in 449 and deposed. He was restored to his See by the Council
of Chalcedon in 451 and sat till 457. The letter which he wrote to MARL
the Persian, Bishop of Beth Ardashir, was all powerful in increasing
the spread of Nestorianism in Persia (Wright, Syr. Lit., p. 48;
Duval, La Littirature Syriaque, p. 344). On the death of Ihibha
all those who had taught or studied in the Persian school of Edessa
were promptly expelled, and driven to seek asylum in the
countries to the east. But a certain amount of work was done in the
school for another twenty years or so, for its final destruction did
not take place until the Emperor Zeno ordered. it to be closed. The
names of several of the distinguished men who were expelled from the
school in 457 are preserved in a letter of the Monophysite
bishop, SIMEON of BATH ARSHAM (5zo-15), a village near
Ctesiphon, who was commonly known as the "Persian Disputant." This
letter, written in 510, is, as Duval says, the oldest document we have
on the propagation of Nestorianism in Persia; for its text see
Assemani, Bibl. Orient., tome i, p. 436.

Among those who were expelled from Edessa was BAR
SAWMA, who was a
teacher in the Persian school, and was, on account of his abrupt and
masterful ways nicknamed "SAHE BETH KENAIYA," i.e. "the Swimmer among
the reeds," meaning "the wild boar." BAR SAWMA went from Edessa to
Nisibis, where he founded a Nestorian school, and was Bishop of
Nisibis. He drew up the "Statutes of Nisibis"(now lost), but they
probably resembled those of his successor published in 496 (see Guidi, Gli
Statuti della scuola di Nisibi, Rome, 1890). With the consent of
the Patriarch BABHAI he decreed that priests might marry. The director
of Bar Sawma's school was NARSAI (NARSES) a native of Ma'alltha, whom
the Jacobites called the "Leper," and his fellow-Nestorians the "Harp
of the Spirit." He died about 507.

By the end of the Vth century Nestorianism had
established itself in
Persia and Mesopotamia and the countries around, and as the Nestorians
were freed from all ties with the Byzantine Church, and Rome had
excommunicated them, they were welcomed by the Persians most cordially.
The asceticism of Egyptian origin, which Awgin had introduced into
Mesopotamia, had been modified and absorbed, and in the VIth century
the archimandrites of the great Nestorian monasteries like Beth Abhe
and Rabban Hormizd worked hand in hand with the head of the Nestorian
Church, who since 498 had established himself at Seleucia-Ctesiphon,
and called himself the "Patriarch of the East."

PROGRESS OF NESTORIANISM

In the first half of the VIIth century the Muslims
began their
far-reaching conquests, and the Nestorians, of whom Muhammad knew very
little, welcomed the success of his arms. The Patriarch Ish6'-yahbh II,
who sat from 628-44, seeing that the downfall of the Persian
Empire was imminent came to terms with Muhammad, or Abu Bakr, through
the intervention of Sayyid, Governor of Najran, and Isho', the bishop
of that town. For the terms of the agreement, which was ratified by
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, see Bar Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., ii, col. 117,
and Assemani, Bibl. Orient., ii, p. 418; III, i, p. 108, col.
is The Patriarch stipulated that the Christians should be protected
from the attacks of their foes; that the Arabs should not make them go
to war with them; that they should not compel them to change their
manners and laws; that they should help them to repair their old
churches; that the tax on the poor should not exceed four zuze;
that the tax on merchants and wealthy men should be ten zuze
per man; that a Christian woman servant should not be compelled to
change her faith, nor to neglect fasting and prayer, etc. The Arabs,
like the Persians, admired the Nestorians for the simplicity of their
Faith, their common sense and practical mindedness, their energy and
power of work and, above all, their learning. The Nestorians studied at
Edessa, not only theology, but medicine as taught by the Greeks, and
logic, philosophy, elocution and grammar, and their intellectual
activity was very great. Unlike the Jacobites or Monophysites, and
Melchites, the Nestorians obstinately adhered to the old Peshitta, or
"Simple" version of the Scriptures, the Syriac Vulgate, which seems to
have been a product of the Christians of Edessa in the IInd century
(Wright, Syr. Lit., p. 3). The attempt to force a revised
version on the community made by the Catholicus Mar-abha I (536--52),
who was a convert from Zoroastrianism, seems to have been an utter
failure.

The Nestorians of the VIth century were keen
men of
business, and under the impulse of their religion, and their love for
mercantile transactions of all kinds, they made their way into all the
countries to the east of Mesopotamia, and from Southern Babylonia they
sailed to the islands in the Persian Gulf, and then to India. COSMAS
INDICOPLEUSTES, who wrote in the first half of the VIth century, found
Nestorian churches in Ceylon and India, and he says that the Nestorian
bishops were guided in their work by the "Patriarchs of the East" who
sat at Seleucia-Ctesiphon.

In the VIIth century the Nestorian traders and
missionaries made
their way into Central Asia and preached the Gospel in Turkestan,
Tartary, and remote China. The first Nestorian missionary entered China
early in the VIIth century, but it is probable that Christianity had
entered that country at a much earlier period. ARNOBIUS (Adversus
Gentes, Leyden,1651, lib. ii, p. 50) who wrote about A.D. 300
reckoned the people of the Seres as Christians (enumerari enim possunt,
atque in usum computationis venire, ea quae in India gesta sunt, apud
Seras, Persas et Medos). (See also Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tome
ii, Col. 1269; Assemani, Bibl. Orient., III, ii, p. 403; Du
Halde, Description de la Chine; and Gibbons, Christian
Church in China, Dublin, 1862, Introduction.)

Under the Patriarchate of Henan Isho' II, who
succeeded Mar Jacob
A.GR. io85 (=A.D. 774= A.H. 157) the famous Stele, inscribed in Chinese
and Syriac, was made at Siganfu (Hsi-an-fu), in the province of
Shensiin China (Plate III). Henan Isho' died in 780, and the Syriac
text on the Stele says that it was set up in "the days of the Father of
Fathers, Mar Henan Isho', the Catholicus and Patriarch," and the date
given on it is "one thousand and ninety-two of the Greeks, i.e. A.D.
781."The Stele was actually unveiled on February 4, A.D. 781. Some of
the early European writers on the monument stated, quite wrongly, that
Henan Isho' died in 778, but it is now generally admitted by competent
authorities that the Patriarch died in 78o. It is true that he was dead
when the unveiling took place in 781, but the news of his death did not
reach China in time to be mentioned in the inscription which was cut
upon the Stele in the previous year. The inscription describes the
fortunes of the Nestorian Church in China, from the advent of its first
mission in 636 to the year 781, and shows that the influence which the
Nestorians had on the religion and civilization of China for about two
centuries was very great. (See APPENDIX, p. 33.) It is interesting to
note that the names of seventy Nestorian missionaries are given on the
Stele of Hsi-an-fu, a fact which suggests that there were many churches
in China at the end of the VIIIth century.

From the evidence collected by Professor P. Y. Saeki
(The
Nestorian Monument in China, London, 1916) we learn that when the
Chinese began to persecute the monks and nuns, about A.D. 845-46, there
were over 2,000 foreign missionaries--Ta-ch'in (Nestorians) and Muhufa
(Muslims) in the country. What became of the Nestorians after their
persecution by the Emperor Wu-tsung in 845 is not known with certainty,
but Professor Saeki thinks that some remained in China, and that the
greater number of the rest retreated to the west and joined the
Assyrian Church in Turkestan. A number of them most probably turned
Muhammadans, for great friendship existed between the Nestorians and
Muslims. The Patriarch removed his throne from Seleucia-Ctesiphon to
Baghdad about 751. On all the great trade routes across Asia to China
the Nestorians were greatly helped by the Muslims. The first Muhammadan
mission reached China in 628 or 632, and so opened the way for the
first Nestorian Mission, under the monk A-to-pen, which arrived therein
636. In 742 there were more than 5,000 Muslims in China (Saeki, Introduction,
p. 51).

THE CONVERSION OF TURKESTAN

The story of the conversion of the people of
Turkestan by the
Nestorians early in the XIth century is thus told by Bar Hebraeus (Chron.
Eccles., ii, col. 280): "At that time 'Abhd-Isho', Metropolitan of
Merv, one of the cities of Khorasan, sent and informed the
Catholicus (Mar John II) saying, ' When the king of the people who are
called Khyreth, that is to say the inner Tirkayd, who live in the
north-east, was hunting in one of the high mountains in his country, he
fell into a region of deep snow, and he lost the path and wandered
about distractedly. And when he had lost all hope of saving his life,
one of the saints appeared to him in a revelation and said unto him, If
thou wilt believe in Christ I will be thy guide so that thou shalt not
die here "; and when the king had promised him that he would be a sheep
in the fold of Christ, the saint guided him and brought him out into
the open ground. When the king returned to his camp, he summoned to him
certain Christian merchants who had business there, and he enquired of
them concerning the Faith, and they said unto him, "A man cannot be
perfect except through baptism." And he took from them a Gospel, and
behold he bows down before it every day. And now he hath sent and asked
me to go to him, or send to him a priest to baptize him. And he asked
me questions about fasting, saying, "With the exception of flesh and
milk we have no food at all; how then can we fast? "And he
also said, that the number of those who believed with him amounted to
two thousand.

"Then the Catholicus sent to the Metropolitan and
told him that he
must send two persons, elders and deacons, and with them the equipment
of an altar, and that they must go and baptize those who have believed,
and must teach them Christian customs, and that during the Lord's Fast
(i.e. Lent) they must abstain from flesh food. But they were to permit
them to drink milk only, provided that foods which were suitable for
seasons of fasting were not, as they said, found in their country."

DOWNFALL OF THE NESTORIAN CHURCH IN CHINA

The Nestorians reached the zenith of their power in
the XIIIth
century under the Patriarch MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III, who ruled the Church
from Baghdad and sat from 1281-1317. This Patriarch was of Uighur
origin, and had great influence- with all the Mongol and Tartar
princes. During his Patriarchate the Great Khan appointed the Nestorian
Mar Sergius Governor of Chinghianfu for three years, and during his
period of office he built two Nestorian churches in the city, in the
year 1278; see Marco Polo, ed. Yule, vol. ii, p. 162. Under Timfir
(1369-1405) the Nestorians were practically exterminated in all the
countries over which he ruled.

For seven hundred and fifty years at least, i.e.
from 500 to 1250,
the Nestorians continued their missionary and mercantile enterprise,
and they undoubtedly influenced greatly the various peoples into whose
countries they penetrated. Under the rule Of YAHBH-ALLAHA III there
were Nestorian Metropolitans, each assisted by suffragan bishops, in
Syria, Armenia, Persia, Huzistan, Seistan, Tabaristan, Turkestan,
China, India, and the country about Al-Basrah. It would be wrong to
assume that it was their religious opinions only that caused the
Nestorians to be welcomed everywhere, for, however interesting their
doctrines were to their clergy, it is impossible to think that the
Chinese, Mongols, Tartars, Turks, Persians, Armenians and the peoples
of the Euphrates Valley and Arabia, as nations, would understand the
details of doctrine which made the teaching of Nestorius anathema to
the Jacobites and Monophysites. For such matters they would care
nothing, but they all would appreciate the superior mental faculties of
the Nestorian missionaries and traders, and their great physical
energy, and above all their knowledge of medicine, and their practical
treatment of the diseases of the body, and the healings they effected.

THE CREED AND DOCTRINE OF THE NESTORIANS

Mention has already been made of the doctrines of
Apollinaris and
Cyril of Alexandria with reference to the Nature, or Natures, of
Christ; and we may now summarize briefly the views of the Nestorians
generally on the Persons and Natures of Christ. It is very difficult to
find out exactly what Nestorius thought and said about them, because we
have only the statements of his enemies to judge by. But it is quite
clear that he, following Diodorus of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia,
attributed to Christ two Natures; the one Divine and the other human,
but he held them to be so entirely distinct that to all
intents and purposes he made Christ a double person. Origen and other
Fathers had called Mary "Theotokos," or "Mother of God," and Mary was,
at the end of the IVth century, commonly called "Theotokos." Nestorius:
preached that Mary was not the Mother of God, but of Christ, or the
Lord, and that the creature did not, and could not, bear the Creator.
Christ died, but God could not die. And God could not have a mother. He
who was formed in the womb of Mary, was not himself God, but a human
being whom God placed there, and with whom He covered Himself.
Nestorius separated the Natures, but united the worship.

From first to last Nestorius insisted on the
absolute completeness
of the HUMANITY Of Christ. But, as already said, it is
difficult, if not impossible, to draw up any comprehensive statement of
the belief of Nestorius, and it is equally difficult to state exactly
what his followers believed, or what the Nestorians of the present day
believe, for no recognized formula of their creed exists. The nearest
approach to a confession of faith is the treatise on the truth of
Christianity by Mar 'Abhd 1sho', Metropolitan of Nisibis and Armenia,
A.D. 1298, entitled the Book of the Pearl (Kethabha
dhe Marghanitha). This work is held in high esteem, but it is not
considered by many Nestorians to be a true or complete exposition of
the doctrines held by their community. Many manuscripts of this
composition are extant (see Baumstark, Syr. Lit., p. 324)and
an English rendering of it was published by Badger in his Nestorians
and their Rituals, vol. ii, Appendix B, p. 380 ff.But the
Church Rituals contain much information about the Nestorian creed, and
as these are regarded everywhere as the highest authority, from which
there is no appeal, a few of them may be quoted here; for fuller
details see Badger's work, vol. ii, p. 30 ff.

OF THE TRINITY--God the Father, and God the Son, the
Word, and God
the Holy Ghost, one substance, one God, in three co-equal persons, of
Whose being there is no beginning, and of Whose Divinity there is no
creation; He is living and everlasting. (From the Hudhra.)

OF THE WORD--One is the Christ, adored by all in two
Natures, Who,
as touching His Godhead, is begotten of the Father, without beginning,
and before all ages; and, as touching His Manhood, was born of Mary, in
the fulfilment of time, a body of union. His Godhead is not from the
substance of His mother, neither His Manhood from the substance of His
Father; but the Natures and Persons subsist in the one Parsopa of this
one Filiation. And as there are inthe Godhead three Persons, One
Self-existent, so the Filiation of the Son is of two Natures
and one Parsopa. Thus doth the Holy Church teach us to Confess of the
Son, Whois the Messiah. Therefore, O Lord, we worship Thy
Divinity and Thy Humanity, without dividing them. (From the Hudhra.)

O Virgin, the Holy Spirit found Him in thee,
and the Word
dwelt in Him by union, without conversion or confusion, the Natures
continuing to subsist unchanged, and the Persons also, by their
essential attributes,-the Divinity and Humanity subsisting in one
Parsopa of Filiation. (From the Gazza.)

Nestorius confessed two Natures and two Persons in
Christ. (From the
Gazza.)

Badger understood the words "Parsopa of Filiation"
to mean "that
Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who through the Infinite Essence is the
Son, in His special office of Son, and for which our theology supplies
no equivalent term. The nearest approach to it with us is when we
ascribe, often in a very lax way, different offices to the Three
Persons of the Trinity in the universal Providence." (Ibid., p. 64.)

As to the Holy Spirit certain Nestorians at one
time taught
that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father only, and in their creed
seem to have followed the Greek Church in omitting the words "and the
Son." But Bedjan has called attention to the second Canon which was
promulgated by the Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, A.D. 410. It was
drawn up by Mar Isaac, and Mar Marutha, and the Persian bishops and
reads, "And we confess the Living and Holy Spirit, the Living
Paraclete, which is from the Father and the Son." See Bedjan's note on
p. 62 of his edition of the Syriac text of the History of Mar
Yahbh-Allaha and Rabban Sawma, Paris and Leipzig, 1895.

What the Nestorian Faith was in the XIIIth century
is made clear by
Rabban Sawma's confession before the Cardinals in Rome which is
translated on p. 96 f., but whether it represented the belief of the
Persian Church only or of all Nestorians cannot be said. According to
this the Father is the Begetter, the Son is the Begotten, and Holy
Spirit proceedeth," and the Son has two Natures (KEYANYN) and two
Persons (KENOMYN, or KENUMYN), one PARSOPA ().On the tomb of
Mar Shem'6n in the church of Rabban Hormizd, the Patriarch, who died
A.GR. 1849= A.D. 1538, says, “From the time when I became Catholicus
and Patriarch of the East, I acknowledged God, the First Light. And I
confessed and believed in His Son Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect
Man, two Natures and two Persons--one Parsopa. And I loved His Spirit.
And I adored His Sign (i.e. the Cross). I partook of His Body and
Blood, and I died with my hope on Him." For the text, see Budge, Book
of Governors, vol. i, p. clxxii.

THE TRAVELS OF THE NESTORIAN CHINESE MONKS, RABBAN SAWMA AND MARKOS

The monks Sawma and Markos (Mark) set out from China
with the
intention of visiting Jerusalem and the holy places, especially the
Tomb of our Lord, so that they might obtain forgiveness of their sins
and full and complete absolution. They travelled together as far as
Baghdad, but there Providence interfered with their plans, Mark became
Patriarch of the East, and was obliged to abandon his journey to
Jerusalem, and Rabban Sawma was appointed to a very high office in the
Nestorian Church, namely, that of Visitor-General, and was subsequently
sent on a mission, partly ecclesiastical and partly political, to
Byzantium, Italy, and France. We may now briefly summarize: z. The
account of the joint travels of the two monks; 2. Rabban Sawma's
account of his journey to Europe; 3. The History of the Patriarchate of
Mark, who was called Yahbh-Allaha (III).

I.--THE TRAVELS OF SAWMA AND MARK

Sawma, later called Rabban Sawma, was the son of a
well-to-do
Nestorian called Shiban by his wife Keyamta, who held the office of
Visitor in the community, and lived in the great city of Khan Balig or
Khan Bahk, (i.e. City of the Khan) in China,. Khan Balik is no other
than the great city of Pekin or Peking, and is called Cambaluc by Marco
Polo, who, describes its history and plan of it as it was in 12go when
he visited it. (See The Book of Sey Marco Polo the Venetian, vol.
i, London, 1875, p. 364 f.) Shiban and Keyamta remained childless
for a long time, but at length a son was born to them and they called
him "Sawma," i.e. the Fast, for he was probably born during
Lent. The child was carefully educated_ and studied ecclesiastical
literature at an early age, and when he arrived at the age of puberty,
his parents betrothed him to a maiden, and his father caused him to be
made kankaya, i.e. ostiarius or keeper of the great church of
Pekin. At the age of twenty he, to the great grief of his parents,
refused to marry the maiden to whom he was betrothed, and renounced the
world and all in it. In response to their prayers and entreaties Sawma
dwelt with his parents for three years, but finding their manner of
life intolerable, he distributed all his goods among the poor and
adopted the garb of the monk; he received the tonsure from Mar George,
Metropolitan of Pekin. At length he left Pekin, and after journeying
for one day he found a cave in the mountain side and a spring of water,
and he settled down there and lived a life of stern asceticism. His
fame spread abroad and men came from all parts to hear his discourses.

In the first half of the XIIIth century there lived
in the city of
Kawshang in Kh6rasan a Nestorian called Bayniel, who filled the office
of archdeacon in that city. He had four sons, and the youngest of them;
who was born in 1245 and was called Mark, decided to become a monk, and
went to the place where Sawma was, a distance- of fifteen days'
journey, to ask him to help him to become one. Sawma tried to persuade
him 'to return to his parents, but Mark refused to do so, and three
years later he was endued with the garb of the monk and received the
tonsure at the hands of Mar Nestorius, the Metropolitan.

The date of the birth of Sawma is not known, but as
Mark went to him
for spiritual help and guidance it is clear that he must have been
several years older than Mark. Sawma died in 1294, and was an old man,
so he was probably born between 1220 and 1230. Sawma and Mark, who
according to Bar Hebraeus (Chyon. Eccles., ii, col. 451) were
fellow-countrymen, for he calls them Yagiraye, i.e. Uighurs,
lived together with great content for some time, but at length they
became restless and discussed the possibility of going to Jerusalem to
receive pardon for their sins and absolution. The more eager to go was
Mark, and he vanquished all Sawma's scruples and fears, and this done
they gave away such possessions as they had, and set out for Pekin to
join one of the caravans that traded between China and the West. When
the Christian- community of Pekin heard that the two monks were going
to Jerusalem, they entreated them to abandon their plan and to settle
down among them, but seeing that their words had no effect upon them
they gave them their blessing and bade them 9 loving farewell. We may
assume that the Metropolitan gave them letters to the heads of the
various Nestorian communities through whose towns and villages they
would pass. Though it is not so stated, it is clear that Kublai Khan
provided them with a "permit "to travel unmolested through his
kingdoms.

Sawma and Mark set out on their way and arrived
without difficulty
at Kawshang, where the kinsfolk and family of the latter lived. Here
they had an impressive welcome, and when the Tartar princes K6nb6gha
and If6gha heard of their arrival they sent messengers to bring them to
their camp. These princes were sons-in-law of Kublai Khan, the fifth
Mongol king of China, who ascended the throne in 1260, and died in
1294, aged 79 years. Like his predecessor Mangu, who reigned from July
1, 1251 to 1260, he treated Christians, and Muslims, and Buddhists with
kindness, and was especially anxious to attract Christians, i.e. the
Nestorians, to his country, where he found their medical learning and
great business capacity of much benefit to his subjects. For good
accounts of his acts see the pages of Sey Marco Polo, ed.
Yule, London, 1874; and Howorth, History of the Mongols, London,
1828. Like the Christians of Kawshang the princes endeavoured to
persuade the two monks to stay in their native country. When they found
that prayers and entreaties were alike useless, the princes and the
kinsfolk of the two monks gave them horses and rugs, and clothing and
money, and the people brought them large supplies of provisions for the
way. The monks having had no experience of desert travel in Central
Asia refused these at first, thinking that such a large amount of
baggage was unnecessary, but at length they accepted the gifts, and
bade farewell to the princes and their kinsfolk, and departed.

In due course Sawma, and Mark arrived at Shachau, an
outpost of
China Proper, on the eastern edge of the worst part of the Sandy
Desert. Here was situated the province of Tanguut, or Tangg6d, which
the Chinese call Hia, and the Mongols Tangut or Tanguth. This province
is represented by the modern province of Kansuh; the name Tangut is now
applied to Tibet (Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 209). There were Nestorians in
Tangut in Marco Polo's day, and three large churches. When the
Christians in Tangut heard of the arrival of the monks they went out to
meet them and rejoiced at their coming; but they made no attempt to
keep the strangers with them, and having loaded them with gifts they
set them on their way. Then after travelling for two months over
well-nigh waterless deserts Sawma and Mark arrived at a place which the
Syriac writer calls L6t6n, but which, as Chabot and others have seen,
must be a misspelling of Kh6tan, the capital of a province of the same
name and the seat of a b shop. The people were all Buddhists (?) and
extremely well-to-do, for the city was the centre of the cotton
industry. For a description of the city and its exports,-carpets, rugs,
cotton and linen stuffs, black and white jade, etc., see Marco Polo,
vol. i, p. 196 ff. On the excavations made at this place see Aurel
Stein, Ancient Khotan, Oxford, 1907. But the arrival of the
monks at Kh6tan took place at an inopportune moment for them, for they
found that the country had been laid waste by a king called Ok6, who
was at war with Kublai Khan, and that provisions were scarce. Worst of
all for them was the blocking of the caravan routes and the insecurity
of the roads, and the result of this was that they had to remain where
they were for six whole months.

At the end of this period they again set out on
their way, and under
the favour of Providence they escaped the attentions of highway robbers
and cut-throats, and arrived safely in the city of Kashkar, or Kashkar,
the Cascar of Marco Polo (vol. i, p. 189), who reproduces a
view of the city from Shaw's Taytary. The town was an
important centre of trade, and formed the terminus of many caravan
routes from the east and west; the country round about was very
fertile, and the merchant and farmer classes were well-to-do. The town
was famous for its jade, for the variety of the stone found there was
obtainable nowhere else. At Kashgar the two monks ought to have found
friends and fellow-Christians, for the city was, like Samarkand, the
seat of a Nestorian Metropolitan, and Marco Polo says there were many
Nestorians in the country, and, that they had churches of their own.
But when Sawma and Mark went into the city they found that it had been
looted by the enemy, presumably the troops of Kublai Khan, and that the
inhabitants had fled, and they marched on to the place where King Kaido
was encamped by the river Talas. Kaido was a grandson of Ogatai, the
Kakhan, who died in December, 1241, and he waged war against Kublai
Khan for many years, and made himself king of Turkestan. His frontier
on the east touched the old kingdom of Kashgar; he died in 1301.

As the two monks in continuing their journey
westwards
would have to pass through his territory; they left the main road and
spent several days in reaching his camp in order to obtain from him a
written permit and authority to travel through his country. Whether
they obtained the permit or not is not stated, but it would seem that
they did not, for they arrived at their next halting-place, Khorasan,
only with the greatest difficulty, and in the last state of mental and
physical exhaustion. The text goes on to say that they had lost on the
road nearly everything they had, and considering the state of the
country they were fortunate to have won through with their lives. As
long as they travelled in the dominions of Kublai Khan, they had only
the difficulties of the way to contend with, but as soon as they passed
the frontier near Kashgar, they entered Kaido's territory, and he was
powerless to make the roads safe for caravans.

As Sawma and Mark were practically penniless they
went to the
monastery of Mar Sehyon, which was situated near Tus, the capital of
Khorasan and Mashad, which lies a few miles to the south of Tus. In the
Xth century of our era 1'us was the second city of the Nishapur quarter
of Khorasan, and the seat of a bishop. It consisted of the twin towns
of At-Tabaran and Nukan, the latter being the larger half of Tus. A
century later the Mongols laid waste Tus, and Tabaran increased in size
and flourished. Nukan was a very wealthy city, and it had a large
export trade in serpentine stone vases, gold, silver, copper, iron,
turquoise, malachite and the "santalum" stone. Mashad, i.e. the "Place
of Martyrdom," or Shrine of the Imam is now the capital of the Persian
province of Khorasan (see the Arab geographers Yakat iv, 414; Ibn
Khurdadbih, p. 24; Ibn Rustah, p. 171).

The two monks were kindly received in the monastery
of Sehyon, about
which nothing is known, and when they had received the blessing of the
bishop they set out on their road through AdhorbijAn intending to
proceed to Baghdad. The province of Adhorbijan (the Persian Azarbijan
and the Greek Atropatene) became of great importance under the Mongols
who made Maraghah its capital; at the present day its capital is
Tabriz: For a general description of the province see Mukaddasi, P.
373; and Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. sag ff. The object
of the two monks in going to Baghdad was to place themselves under the
protection of the Catholicus, Mar Denha, but when they arrived at
Maraghah they found that he was in the city and transacting business
there. Maxagah, or Maraghah, i.e. Kariyat al-Maraghah, or
"Village of the Pasturer," the Afrazah Rudh of the Persians, was
situated on the river Safi, and was about 70 miles from Tabriz. The
city was pleasant to live in and the country round about it was fertile
and abounded in orchards. Near it stood the great observatory, built by
the astronomer Nasir ad-Din of Tus, where, by order of Hulagu Khan, the
celebrated Il-Khani tablets had been calculated and published (Plate
IV). (Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. 164.)

Sawma and Mark rejoiced to find that the Patriarch
was in the city
and they went and made themselves known to him; he received them
kindly, and a few days later they asked his permission to go to
Baghdad, whence they proposed to proceed to Beth-Garmai in the north,
and Nisibis in the west. The Catholicus approved their plans and gave
them a letter of introduction, which would ensure them a kindly
reception among every Nestorian community they visited. Armed with this
they went to Baghdad, and visited the churches and monasteries at and
near Seleucia-Ctesiphon. They returned to Baghdad and then went to
Beth-Garmai in the North, and visited the tomb of Mar Ezekiel, the
prophet, who, according to an ancient tradition was buried in
Mesopotamia, in the grave of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah
(Book of the Bee, ed. Budge, p. 72). The see of Beth-Garmai was
very large (see Hoffmann, Ausziige aus Syr. Akten Pers. Martyrer, Leipzig,
1880), and they had not time to visit all the holy sites in it. They
then went on to Arbil, or Irbil, the ancient Arbela, which lay in the
plain between the Greater and Lesser Zabh rivers. The town was a great
trading centre, and a large export trade in cotton was done there; many
of its merchants were Nestorians, and its churches were, together with
those of Mosul, under the direction of a Nestorian Metropolitan.

From Arbil they went to Mosul (Nineveh) on the
Tigris, where there
were large congregations of Nestorians and many churches. There the two
monks were entertained at the monasteries, and were probably supplied
with funds for their journey. From Mosul they travelled westwards to
Sinjar by the old caravan road which passes Tall Afar. Sinjar was a
walled town, and when Sawma and Mark visited it there was a fine mosque
there and many bath-houses with mosaic floors. The houses were, and
still are, built in step-fashion up the slope of the hill, and the
country round about was very fertile. Tradition says that the Ark
rested on the top of the mountain above the town, and Christians and
Muslims considered the town one of the holy places. It will be
remembered that it was Gabriel, a native of Sinjar, who was the
physician of Shirin, the wife of Khusrau, and saved her life. (Budge, Book
of Governors, vol. ii, p. 80.)

From Sinjar the two monks followed the old caravan
road to Nisibis,
a very old town which is mentioned in the cuneiform inscriptions. It
lies about i2o miles north-east of Mosul and is two days'
journey from Jazirat ibn-'Umar on the Tigris. It is surrounded by the
river Hirmas. According to Yakut (iv, p. 787) it contained 40,000
gardens! Still following the old caravan road the two monks went to the
great rock fortress of Mardin, with its castle which was called
"AlBaz," i.e."the Falcon." The houses were, and still are,
built in step-fashion up the mountain side, and the town was famous for
its markets, its khans or inns, and its colleges. The Sawr river from
Tur 'Abhdin flows through the town. Close by are: 1, The monastery of
Za'faran, and the monasteries of Mar Awgin (see p. 17 f.) and Mar
Yuhanna (see Shabushti's Book of Monasteries, quoted by
Hoffmann, Ausziige, p. 167).Our two monks visited the
tomb of Mar Awgin, who because he sent forth two and seventy disciples
is called the "second Christ."

From Mardin the two monks paid visits to the
monasteries in the
district of Beth-Zabhdai, i.e. the country on the right or west bank of
the Tigris near fazirat ibn-'Umar. Here lived many monks in many
monasteries, and the strangers were well received and blessed by the
bishops, and as they "spread tables of food "for the poor and needy
they must have contrived to save money enough for the purpose. The
Gazarta mentioned in the text is probably the town of Jazirat, i.e.
"the Island," better known as Jazirat ibn-'Umar, which was founded
by Al-Hasan ibn-'Umar, of the Taghlib tribe. Yakut says that the Tigris
flowed half round the city in a semicircle, while a ditch filled with
water on the land side made it into an island. It was an important
trading centre, whither all the products of Armenia were brought for
sale; the houses were of stone, and the town was surrounded by a wall
(Le Strange, Eastern Caliphate, p. 93).It is
about 105 miles down stream of Diyar Bakr, or Amid. Opposite
Jazirat ibn-'Umar was Beth-Zabhdai, the Bazabda of the Arab
geographers, and the Bezabda of classical writers. It will be noted
that all the towns visited by Sawma and Mark were trading centres,
where well-to-do merchants congregated for business purposes; and we
may assume that many of the merchants would be Nestorians, and that our
travellers would receive help from them.

Their visit to Gazarta ended, the two monks turned
their faces
eastwards, and directed their steps to the monastery of Mar Michael at
Tar'il, which was probably situated at no great distance from Mosul and
on the road to Arbil. Here they decided to settle down for a time at
least, and having "bought a cell," they lived with the monks in amity.
It may be noted in passing that the word "cell "is applied to any
building in which monks, or bishops, or even a patriarch lived; many of
the "cells "of the higher orders of the clergy were comfortable and
spacious houses, and the cell "of the Patriarch at Baghdad was a
palace.

Whilst Sawma and Mark were living at Tar'il, Mar
Denha, the
Patriarch (ordained 1266), who had made himself acquainted with their
manner of life, summoned them to Baghdad. When they arrived he pointed
out to them that their life at Tar'il was a selfish one, and that they
had better come and live with him where their abilities and piety would
help the whole community, and perhaps strengthen the hands of the
Mongol Government; and they agreed to live in Baghdad, under his
protection. But the Patriarch needed them not so much for the welfare
of the whole community as for his own benefit. Soon after their arrival
in Baghdad he asked them to go to the Court of Abhgha, or Abhaga, King
of Kings, the son of Hulagu Khan, to obtain from him an Edict
confirming him in his appointment as Patriarch of the East. Sawma and
Mark were well acquainted with the manners and customs of the Mongols,
and could speak and write Chinese and Persian. And as they were under
the protection of Kublai Khan (see Bar Hebraeus, Chyon. Eccles., sect.
ii, col. 451) the Patriarch believed that he would gain more by sending
them to Abhgha than if he went himself. The monks agreed to go to
Abhgha, but told the Patriarch that he must send with them a man to
bring back to him the Edict if they obtained it, for they intended to
continue their journey to Jerusalem. The Patriarch agreed to do so and
gave them his blessing and they set out on their way. The mission of
Sawma and Mark was crowned with success, for when the Amirs had
reported their arrival to King Abhgha, and placed the Patriarch's
petition before him, he ordered the Edict (Pukdane) to be drawn
up and given to them. These they handed over to the messenger who had
come with them, and sent it back to Baghdad, and they set out on their
journey to Jerusalem.

As all the country of Northern Syria was in a very
disturbed state
our monks knew that it was impossible to travel by the ordinary routes
to the West, and they made up their minds to march to the North, and to
try to reach Jerusalem by sea. They therefore went to Ani, the famous
capital of 'Christian Armenia, which was taken and sacked by Alp
Arslan, the Saljuk in io64. This event broke up the older Armenian
kingdom of the Bagratids, and caused Rupen to found the kingdom of
Little Armenia. Though built in the mountains Ani contained several
fine churches, but it is probable that many of them were in ruins when
our monks came to the town. The town was captured from the Turks in
1123-24, by the great general, John Orbelian, on behalf of David the
Restorer, King of Georgia (Marco Polo, vol. ii, p. 544 From Ani, Sawma
and Mark made their way westwards through the country of the Georgians,
with whom the Nestorians were friendly, probably with the intention of
embarking at one of the ports in the Gulf of Iskanderun, but they were
warned that robberies and murders were frequent on "Darb As-Suhani" or
King's Highway, and they returned to Baghdad.

When they arrived the Patriarch Denha told them that
it was
unnecessary for them to go to Jerusalem, and that he had otter and
better work for them to do, namely, to go back to China and help to
rule the Nestorian Church there. To enable them to do this he had
determined to ordain Mark Bishop, and Sawma Visitor-General. The two
monks said they were unworthy of such honours and responsibilities,
that they only wished to live and die in a monastery, but Mar Denha
insisted, and at length they bowed to his will. Now Mar Denha wished to
give Mark another name, and having written several names on pieces of
paper and laid them on the altar, by means of a kind of divination (or
lottery?) one of the papers was selected, and on it was written
"Yahbh-Allaha," i.e."God gave (him)." Mar Denha thereupon gave
Mark this name, and ordained him "Metropolitan of Kathay and Wang," i.e.
two districts of Northern China, in 1280. Sawma, or Rabban Sawma,
or Rabban Bar Sawma was named "Visitor-General," and allowed to keep
his own name. Mark was 35 years of age at the time, and Sawma was
probably 10 or 15 years older. The Patriarch gave them letters of
introduction, and written authorizations, and Mar Yahbh-Allaha and
Rabban Sawma set out on their journey to China. But they were unable to
go very far for they found that the kings on both sides of the Oxus
were at war, and that in consequence the caravan roads were cut they
therefore went back to the monastery of Mar Michael at Tar'il near
Mosul, and lived there in their old quarters for about two years.
Whilst they were there Yahbh-Allaha had two remarkable dreams in which,
according to Sawma's interpretations, it was indicated that he was
marked out by God for promotion to the highest position in the
Nestorian Church (see pp. 45).

Meanwhile Mar Denha, who had been ailing for a long
time, became
seriously ill, and Yahbh-Allaha was moved to go to Baghdad to obtain
from him the insignia of his office, namely, the special cloak and the
pastoral staff, but before he arrived there the Patriarch was dead. The
day after Mar Denha was buried the bishops and nobles and all the
notables assembled to elect his successor. After much discussion all
agreed that Yahbh-Allaha must be elected head of the Nestorian Church,
not because of his learning or piety, but because he knew the manners
and customs and language of the Mongol kings who were at that time
governors of the world; thereupon he was nominated Patriarch of the
East, in spite of his protest that he did not know the Syriac language.
Rabban Sawma, the practical, told him that he must accept the position,
and hinted that the sooner the consent of the King of Kings to his
election was obtained the better. In due course they set out with a
large company of bishops and monks and went to the king's summer
residence at Siyah Kuh, or the Black Mountain, in Adhorbijan, which
rose up above the little town of Kalantar, which was picturesquely
situated among the woods.

The story of the election of Yahbh-Allah, is given
by Bar Hebraeus
thus:-"In the year 1592 of the Greeks (A.D. 1280) the Catholicus Mar
Denha set out to go down to Baghdad, and on the way he fell ill. After
he reached the city he lingered for a few days, and then suddenly, on
the night of the Monday which ushered in the Great Fast, he departed.
this life on the 24th day of the month Shebhat (February) of that same
year. Whilst he was alive two Uighur monks came from China by the
command of Kublai Khan to go and worship in Jerusalem. When they came
to these countries they were unable to find a road or an opportunity to
travel thither, and they sojourned with Mar Denha. And in order that
his enemy Bar-Kaligh might not go to China, he ordained one of these
two Uighurs (i.e. Turkish) monks Metropolitan of China, and his name
was Yahbh-Allaha. Now whilst these two monks were preparing to return
to their own country Mar Denha died. Then the Amir Amshut, who was a
kinsman of the two monks, spake to the King of Kings on behalf of
Yahbh-Allaha, saying that the Christians wished him to be their
Catholicus, and that all the Nestorians of Baghdad wished it also,
because, owing to his kinsmanship with the Mongols, both by race and
language, they would be helped by him. And therefore a royal Edict that
he should be appointed Catholicus was promulgated. And twenty-four
bishops assembled, and went down to Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and there they
consecrated him Catholicus.

"Now although Yahbh-Allaha was somewhat deficient in
the knowledge
of the doctrines and writings of the Syrians, he was a man of good
disposition, and the fear of God was found in him; and he showed great
love towards us, and to the children of our people, i.e. the
Jacobites" (Chron. Eccles., sect. ii, col. 452). The Bar
Kaligh who is mentioned above was Simon, Bishop of Tus in Khorasan; he
insulted Mar Denha, who had appointed him in 1279, and was summoned by
him to Ashnu, or Ushnuh, a Kurdish town famous for its trade in horses,
cattle,- and sheep. Mar Denha had him shut up in the monastery of Mar
Behnam in the city of Lakha, but he escaped, and having been captured
by some mountaineers they brought him to the Patriarch, who shut him
up, and the bishops and monks who were with him, in a building near his
cell. A few days later all there were found dead, and many stories,
discreditable to the Patriarch, as to how this happened were current.
The incident was never forgotten, as the subsequent happenings showed.

The king received Mar Yahbh-Allaha with honour, and
gave him his
throne and the cloak which lay on his shoulders and a parasol; on the
use and signification of the parasol see Marco Polo, vol. i, p. 345.
The king also gave him a gold PAIZA, i.e. a tablet of gold
about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide, perforated at one end for
suspension, and inscribed with a formula containing the name of God and
the king, which conferred upon the holder of it great authority and
privileges. A lithograph-facsimile of the "Gold Tablet of Command," or
Paiza is given in Marco Polo, ed. Yule, vol. i, facing p. 342. The
great seal of the Catholicus Mar Denha was placed in his hands, and a
sum of money to defray the cost of the consecration ceremonies in
Baghdad. In the winter of that year (1281), soon after his consecration
in the Church of K6kA in November, King Abhgha visited Mar Yahbh-Allaha
in Baghdad and gave him authority to levy a tax on the people of 30,000
dinars for the upkeep of the monasteries and churches, but after
the death of Abhgha in 1282 the Patriarch was unable to enforce the
payment of it. A summary of the history of the Patriarchate of
Yahbh-Allaha III is given later (p. 22 f.).

THE PAIZAH OR BULL OF THE MONGOL KINGS

The Paizah (or Paiza, or Paizah) was a gold tablet,
about a palm in
breadth and half a cubit in length, and it seems that it was originally
given by the Mongol kings to members of the royal house who were
deputed to act for the king. It gave the bearer authority to call upon
the people of a village or town to supply him with everything he
needed, without payment, and they were expected to pay him royal
honours. Later, the Paizah was given to favourites of the king and to
men whom the king wished to honour. With the Paizah was given a written
warrant, or patent, which was called "Yarligh or Yarlikh," which the
holder of the Paizah could produce as proof that he had not stolen it,
and that he was not an impostor. The word Paizah is derived from the
Chinese pai-tseu;Yarligh is said to be a native Mongol
word, and is the name given to-day by the Turks in speaking of a
rescript or edict of the Sultan. The Yarligh al-tamgha is the
warrant with a red seal or stamp, and a specimen of such a Yarligh is
reproduced in Marco Polo (ed. Yule, vol. ii, p. 472). It gives
the first three lines of a Mongol letter written in the Uighur
character by Arghon Khan to Philip the Fair of France in 1289. For the
seal see p. 32. There were several kinds of Paizah and Yarligh, and in
some cases they were identical in character with the Sultan of Turkey's
Buyuruldi, which is nothing more than a permit to travel, and
to demand relays of horses or mules on payment.

The Paizah represented on Plate V is made of silver,
and is about
12.25 inches long and 3.75 inches broad; it was found in the Minussinsk
circle of the Government of Yenisei in 1846, and is now preserved in
the Museum of the Academy of St. Petersburg. The moulded ring at one
end is of iron, and was used for suspending it. The inscription is in
the Mongol language and in the Baspa character, and is said to mean "By
the strength of the eternal heaven! May the name of the Kakhan (i.e.
King of Kings) be holy! He who doth not pay him reverence shall be
slain and must die." On the back of the Paizah is the number 42. On
Plate XIII we have a Paizah with the inscription in the Uighur
character. (See Schmidt, Uber eine Mongol. Quadratinschyift, in
the Transactions of the Academy of St. Petersburg, 1847.) The weight of
the silver Paizah varies between 12 and 2 pounds. Apparently no Paizah
in gold has yet been discovered.

II.--THE TRAVELS OF RABBAN SAWMA

During the short reign of Ahmad, the second son of
Hulagu Khan
(1282-84), Sawma seems to have lived with or near Yahbh-Allaha III, and
to have done what he could to help his friend during that period of
anxiety and trouble. When Arg6n or Argh6n succeeded to the throne the
Nestorians rejoiced greatly, for he loved the Christians, and was a
close friend of the Patriarch. Some of Argh6n's predecessors had wished
to invade Syria and Palestine and capture Jerusalem, but they had
never, for various reasons, been able to do so. Argh6n had the same
wish, but he realized that he would never be able to capture Jerusalem
unless he could obtain the help of the Western kings, and he therefore
asked the Patriarch to find him a suitable ambassador to carry letters
to the kings of Byzantium, Italy, France, and England. Yahbh-AllAha
knew well that there was only one man who was fit to undertake this
difficult task, namely, Rabban Sawma, and without more ado he ordered
him to prepare for the journey to the West. Sawma rejoiced at the
opportunity of going to the country of the Romans, and told the
Patriarch that he longed to go. Thereupon Argh6n wrote dispatches to
the kings of the Greeks and Romans, and prepared gifts for each of
them, and as marks of royal favour and honour he gave Sawma a Paiza
(see above p. 19) and also a Yarlikh, 2,000 mathkale of gold and 30
good riding horses. Sawma also obtained a letter of authority from the
Patriarch, who sent by his hands letters and gifts for the Pope. Having
chosen a number of priests and deacons to accompany him Sawma set out
for Beth-Rh6maye, i.e. Byzantium. The text does not tell us by
what route he travelled, but as he embarked in a ship at some port on
the Sea of Meka, i.e. the Great Sea, or Black Sea, we may
assume that he followed the old caravan road from Baghdad northwards,
and passing through Mawsil (Mosul), Jazirat ibn-'Umar, and Diyar Bakr,
arrived at Samsun, on the Black Sea. Here he and his party embarked in
a ship which carried 3oo passengers, and in a few days he reached
Constantinople. He sent messengers on to announce his arrival to the
king, and he was honourably entreated and suitably housed by the
Basileus, i.e. Andronicus II (1282-1328) (see Krumbacher, Byzant.
Litteyatuy, p. 1054).Whether Andronicus II promised to
help Argh6n or not is not stated, but as soon as Sawma had eaten and
drunk he asked the king to depute some one to show him the churches,
and shrines, and tombs of the saints, and the sainted relics. Having
seen the principal churches and relics he returned to the king and
asked his permission to continue his journey to the country of the
Franks. The king gave him gifts of gold and silver and dismissed him in
peace.

Sawma left Constantinople, and on his road to the
quay visited (?) a
monastery on the sea-shore which contained the head of John Chrysostom,
and other precious relics, and then he embarked on a ship and sailed
into the Mediterranean. During his voyage westwards, he saw either
Mount Vesuvius, or Mount Etna, or, perhaps, as Bedjan suggests,
Stromboli, which was then in eruption, and, after two months of
weariness and exhaustion, he and his party landed at Naples. Here he
waited upon the king who, according to Chabot (Hist. du Patyiarche,
p. 60, note 3), was Charles Martel, the son of Charles IL,
and explained to him the object of his mission, and the king treated
him honourably. Whilst there he witnessed from the roof of a house a
naval fight between the ships of Charles II and those of the king of
Aragon, James II. About the time of Sawma's visit there was war between
the two kings because Charles II had seized the town of Agosta in
Sicily. In the naval action which followed, Charles II was defeated and
a large number of his ships were sunk; for details of the engagement
see the extracts from the historians quoted by Chabot (p. 61, note 5).
The identification of "Y rid Ark6n "with the "king of Aragon "is due to
Bedjan. The result of Sawma's audience of the king is not stated.

From Naples Sawma set out by land for Rome, and on
the road he heard
that the Pope, Honorius IV (1285-87), was dead. After a few days he and
his party arrived in Rome, and he at once sent a message to the
Cardinals who were administering the papal throne, to tell them that he
had brought letters to the Pope from Argh6n, King of Kings. The
Cardinals received him courteously and begged him to defer the
discussion of his mission for a season; they provided him with suitable
quarters and installed him therein. Three days later they sent for him
and discussed his mission, and Sawma, explained to them the close
relationship which existed between the Nestorian Church and the kings
of the Mongols, and told them of King Argh6n's desire to rescue
Jerusalem from the infidels. Then the Cardinals questioned him closely
as to his Creed, and drew from him the very interesting confession of
the Nestorian Faith, which is given on pp. 53.

After much talk Sawma told the Cardinals that he did
not come to.
Rome to discuss questions of faith, but to be blessed by the Pope and
to transact Argh6n's business with him, and then he asked the Cardinals
to allow him to see the holy places in Rome. They at once summoned an
official and certain monks and directed them to show him everything. He
was greatly interested in St. Peter's, but he seems to have
misunderstood what he was told about the crowning of Emperors by the
Pope, and the way in which the crown was placed on their heads (see p.
54). When he had seen all the sights he returned to the Cardinals and
asked their permission to go and see the other kings for whom he had
dispatches, and as he was leaving them they told him that they could
not give him an answer to King Argh6n's letter until a new Pope was
elected.

From Rome, Sawma and his party went into Tuscany,
where they were
well received, and thence to Genoa, where the people were living under
a democratic regime. He visited the cathedral church of Saint Lawrence
(founded in 985), and saw and greatly admired the famous vessel which
is now known as the "Sacro Catino." This object was captured by the
Genoese at Caesarea in 1101, and brought to Genoa, but was carried off
to Paris by Napoleon I in 18og. One tradition says that it was given to
Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and another says that our Lord and His
disciples ate the Paschal lamb from it, and that Joseph of Arimathea
caught in it some of the drops of Christ's Blood on the day of His
Crucifixion. It is a beautiful green colour, and it was believed by
everyone to have been made out of a single emerald. But it was broken
in Paris, either by accident or design, in 1815, and it was then found
to be made of green opaque glass. From Genoa Sawma went to Onbar, a
town or city which has not been identified; Bedjan in a footnote
suggests Lombardy or Ambron.

Leaving Italy, Sawma entered France, and after a
journey which seems
to have lasted a month, arrived in Paris, and sent a messenger to
announce his arrival to the king, Philippe IV le Bel. The king received
him with great honour, and when he had read King Arghon's letter, and
accepted his presents, he told Sawma that he was prepared to send a
force to help the Mongols to wrest Jerusalem from the hands of the
infidels. Sawma remained in Paris for a month and during this time he
was shown the educational institutions of Paris, with their 30,000
pupils, who were maintained by the king. One day he was taken into the
church of St. Denis, containing the mausoleum of the Kings of France,
and on another day into the famous Sainte Chapelle. In the latter the
king led him up to a gilded chamber, and brought out a beryl or crystal
coffer and showed him the Crown of Thorns which, he said, his ancestors
had brought from Constantinople. The king promised to send one of his
nobles to carry his answer to Arghon, and Sawma, having received from
him gifts and valuable apparel, set out for Gascony (?) to see the king
of England, Edward I. After riding for twenty days Sawma arrived at the
chief city (which Chabot thinks was Bordeaux), and had an audience of
the king there at which he presented Arghon's letter and gifts. Having
stated that his views were the same as those of Arghon, the king
commanded Sawma to celebrate the Eucharist, and he and his nobles
partook of the Mysteries. After further talk the king gave Sawma many
gifts and money to defray his travelling expenses. Having delivered his
dispatches to the various kings Sawma returned to Italy and passed the
winter in Genoa.

SAWMA RETURNS TO MONGOLIA

Towards the end of the winter a Cardinal Legate
arrived in Genoa
from Germany on his way to Rome, and he and Sawma met and held converse
together. This great ecclesiastic who is styled a periodeutes or
"Visitor "in the Syriac text can only have been, as Chabot has shown
(p. 83), John of Tusculum, whom Pope Honorius IV had sent to Germany at
the close of 1285 to arrange for the coronation of the Emperor Rudolf
of Habsburg. In the course of his talk with the Visitor," Sawma
complained to him that he had spent a whole year in waiting for a new
Pope to be appointed, and told him that he did not know what to do, and
what answer he could carry back to his master's letter to the Pope. The
Visitor, saying that he would go and see the Cardinals and urge them to
act promptly, went on his way to Rome. When he reached that city he
found that a new Pope had been appointed, and he told him of his
conversation with Sawma. Thereupon the Pope, Nicholas IV (1288-g2),
sent a messenger bidding Sawma and his companions to come to Rome, and
deputed a Metropolitan bishop and many clergy to go and meet him. The
Pope received him with great honour and Sawma presented to him Arghon's
letter and gifts, and the letter and gifts of Mar Yahbh-Allaha III, and
the Pope invited him to stay and keep the Easter Festival with him in
Rome. A few days later Sawma celebrated the Eucharist according to the
Nestorian rite, and the congregation agreed that though the language
was different the order was the same; during the Festival the Pope
celebrated High Mass, and Sawma partook of the Offering at his hands.

The description of the Easter Festival in Rome is of
great interest
for the student of Oriental Liturgies, but a discussion of it would be
out of place here. When the Festival was ended and Sawma wished to
leave Rome, the Pope tried to persuade him to remain there and live
under his protection. In reply to his words Sawma said that the
interests of the Christians in the East dernanded his return, and then
asked the Pope to give him some sacred relics to take back with him.
The Pope gave him portions of the apparel of sour Lord and His Mother,
and some small pieces of the relics of some of the saints. To Mar
Yahbh-Allaha he sent a gold crown inlaid with precious stones, some
vestments of red and gold brocade, stockings and sandals, a ring from
his finger, and a Bull authorizing him to rule the Eastern Church. To
Sawma he gave, a Bull confirming his appointment as Visitor-General,
and his blessing, and he ordered his officers to provide him with 1,500
mathkale of red gold for the expenses of his journey home.

Of Rabban Sawma's route on his return journey we
know nothing,
because the translator of his narrative from Persian into Syriac found
himself obliged to abridge the original considerably. All we know is
that he returned safely to King Arghon, who rejoiced to hear of the
success of his mission to the kings in Europe. As a reward the king
promised to build a church in his capital and to make Sawma priest
thereof. Arghon kept his promise, and following the example of the
Mongol king Kuyuk Khan (1248-57) he set up a church so close to the
royal tent that the ropes of the curtains of the church crossed those
of his own tent. When the king's tent was moved, the church was moved
also. The direction of everything connected with the church was
committed to Sawma, who was ordered to arrange that service should be
performed in it all day long. In 1289 Arghon had his son Kharbande
baptized by the Patriarch in Maraghah, and in i2gi he died and was
succeeded by Kaikhato.

A year or two later Sawma, feeling that he was no
longer able to
bear the hard manner of life of the Mongols and the fatigues of
travelling, obtained permission from Kaikhato to build a church in
Maraghah. Taking with him from the Royal Camp the vessels and vestments
which he had used in the church there, he went to Maraghah and built a
church in the names of Mar Mari and Mar George. By some means or other
he obtained relics of forty martyrs to place in it. On the building,
furnishing, and endowment of this church he spent 105,000 zuze,
or nearly £4,400 (one zuza=10d.). The church was finished
in 1293, and he went down to Baghdad to assist the Patriarch. He
attended the banquet at Shaharzur in Kurdistan, which King Baidu gave
in honour of the Patriarch, but was taken ill and collapsed with an
attack of fever. With the help of his co-religionists he journeyed from
Arbil to Baghdad where he died in January, 1294. He was buried in the
church of Der ar-Rhomaye, near Baghdad.

III.--THE PATRIARCHATE OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III

We have seen that Mar Yahbh-Allaha III was
consecrated Patriarch of
the East with the consent of King Abhgha, who authorized him to levy a
tax for the upkeep of the churches and monasteries. Abhgha was
succeeded in 1282 by Ahmad, who was also called Takudar, and whose
baptismal name was Nicholas. This king was a stupid and ignorant man,
and as he was attached to the religion of the descendants of Hagar,
i.e. the Muhammadans,, he persecuted the Christians. Two high
officials, Shams ad-Din and 'Abd ar-Rahman, and the Amir Shamot, and
two bishops, Isho'-Sabhran of Tangoth, and Simon of Arna, entered into
a conspiracy to depose Mar Yahbh-Allaha and destroy Rabban Sawma. They
made Ahmad believe that they were conspiring against him in favour of
Arghon, the son of Abhgha, and writing accusations against him to
Kublai Khan in China. The Patriarch and the Visitor-General were
brought before him in the Hall of judgment, and he took from the former
the Paiza which Abhgha had given to him, and cast him into prison where
he remained for about forty days. But for the mediation of the Queen
Mother Kutui Khatun, who was probably a Christian, and certain of the
Amirs he would have slain the Patriarch. In the end, however, he
restored the Pukdana and Paiza to him and sent him away content.

Mar Yahbh-Allaha then went to Urmi, or Urmiyah,
which lay close to
the western shore of the lake of the same name. This town was of
considerable size and was fortified and had a castle, it was a busy
trading centre and famous for its cloths and fabrics. Tradition says
that it was the birthplace of Zardusht, or Zoroaster. The Patriarch
continued his journey to Maraghah, and arrived there with the bishops
who had calumniated him. Soon after this Ahmad and his army went to
Khorasan to seize Arghon who, together with the other princes, he
intended to slay; and he determined to make himself Khalifah of Baghdad
and to kill the Patriarch. Ahmad was at first victorious, but
subsequently his officers and men forsook him, and he was captured and
slain by the order of Arghon in 1284.

As soon as Arghon ascended the throne he began to
consider the
possibility of conquering Syria and Palestine, and getting possession
of the Holy Sepulchre, but he knew that it was impossible to do this
without the help of the kings in Europe. He therefore summoned Mar
Yahbh-Allaha and told him to select an ambassador who was able and
willing to go to Byzantium and other countries and carry out his
mission successfully. The envoy chosen was Rabban Sawma, and how he
performed, his task has already been shown.

During the reign of King Arghon (1284-91) Mar
Yahbh-Allaha obtained
great power and influence, and his relations with the king were so
friendly that his royal master came to Maraghah and paid him a visit.
But this happy state of affairs was of short duration, for Arghon died
March 10, 1291 and was sorely lamented by the Christians. He was
succeeded by Imaghin Tonghin, who was called Kaikhato or the
"Wonderful," the son of Abhgha and Tukdan Khatun, and began to reign in
July or August, 1291, and died in 1295. He favoured the Christians
greatly and his generosity to everyone was proverbial; money had no
value in his sight, and before his death his treasury was empty. When
he was in Ala Dagh he attended divine service in the church which Dokuz
Khatun, the great Christian Queen and wife of Hulagu had built there,
and at the conclusion of the Mysteries he gave the Patriarch 20,000 dinars,,
and nine vestments made of gold brocade. Mar Yahbh-Allaha was his
constant adviser and he directed the king's actions to the advancement
of the glory and honour of the Church. Under the king's direct
patronage Rabban Sawma, built the great church at Maraghah. Kaikhato
visited Mar Yahbh-Allaha twice in his Cell at Maraghah, and remained
there as his guest for short periods. On one of these occasions he
bestowed on the Patriarch the greatest honour which he could give to a
subject, namely, the Paiza of gold of the "Sunkor "class. The word
"Sunkor "means gerfalcon (shonkay), and Sunkor Paiza was a
gold tablet on which figures of gerfalcons were engraved in addition to
the ordinary inscription (Plate XIII). Marco Polo says a tablet with
gerfalcons on it was only given to the very greatest of the Khan's
barons, and it confers on them his own full power and authority. So
that if one of these chiefs wishes to send a messenger anywhere, he can
seize the horses of any man, be he even a king, and any other chattels
at his pleasure (ed. Yule, vol. i, p. 342). With the Paiza the king
gave the Patriarch 7,000 dinars.

In April, 1294, three months after the death of
Rabban Sawma, Mar
Yahbh-Allaha went to visit the king in his camp at Ma Dagh, and
received from him many valuable gifts, viz., a cloak, a couple of fine
riding mules, a parasol to be held over his head on state occasions,
and 6o,ooo z2ze, or about X2,500. With this money the Patriarch set to
work to build the monastery of Mar John the Baptist about a couple of
miles from Maraghah, where he had already built a fine church in honour
of Mar Mari.

When all the world seemed to be at peace suddenly
the country was
convulsed by civil war which broke out as the result of a drunken
quarrel between Kaikhatb and his cousin Baidu. The nobles took sides
and fighting began, and the Arabs took the opportunity to attack
villages, loot the towns, and murder the people as they pleased. In the
end Kaikhat6 was murdered and his cousin Baidu succeeded him and
reigned for about four months, and then he was murdered. The Arabs
began to rise all over the country, and to take vengeance on the
Christians for all the evils which they had been made to suffer through
Dokuz Khatun, Hulagu's Christian Queen. She hated the Arabs and their
religion, and had caused large numbers of mosques to be razed to the
ground, and the Arabs now thought that the time had come for them to
destroy the churches and kill the Christians. Their attack was led by a
fanatic called Nawruz, who. sent messengers throughout the country
calling upon the Arabs to rise, and they did so. A party of them
entered the Patriarch's Cell in Maraghah and plundered it, and then
they seized Mar Yahbh-Allaha and the bishops who were with him; they
hung the Patriarch up head downwards, and gagged him, and called upon
him to become a Muslim, and the bishops they stripped naked and tied up
with ropes. Then they beat the holy man with sticks, and demanded gold
from him. One of his friends went out into the town and succeeded in
borrowing 15,000 zuze, which was handed over to the Arabs by
installments. Then having ransacked the Cell they took the 5,000 dinars,
which they found, and the chalices and the patens, as well as the
15,000 zuze which the disciple had borrowed, and departed to
destroy the church of Mar Shalita.

But at this moment the Christians received help from
an unexpected
quarter, for Khetam, or Hathom, the Takawor or king of Armenia,
appeared with his troops, and partly by bribes and partly by force
succeeded in saving the church which Rabban Sawma had built. The
Patriarch managed to escape from his Cell and fled to the church, but
on the following day, when he heard the fanatical Nawruz asking for him
that he might kill him, he fled from the church and left King Hathom to
deal with him. Hath6m gave gifts to Nawruz, i.e. bribed him for
allowing Mar Yahbh-Allaha to escape, and then left Maraghah. The Syriac
text calls the Armenian king Takpur, but Takpur represents the Armenian
word Takavor, which means "king" or "prince."

A few days later Hathom set out for Tabhriz, the
capital of the
great province of Adhorbijan, and he took the Patriarch with him
disguised as a servant. When they arrived there they found that Kazan,
the son of Argh6n, who succeeded Baidu in 1295, had pitched his camp
there. Whilst Hath6m was waiting for an opportunity to speak to Kazan
on behalf of the Patriarch, Yahbh-Allaha kept himself hidden, but at
length Hath6m told him to go to the king, and he went accompanied by
the few men who had stayed with him. When he entered the presence Kazan
asked him, "Whence comest thou?" and "What is thy name? "The Patriarch
answered briefly and having blessed him, left the king in bitter grief
and sorrow. The Court moved on to Mugan, or Mughan, or Mughkan, or
Mugan, the capital of the district of the same name, which stretches
from the base of Mount Sablan to the east coast of the Caspian Sea.
According to Mukaddasi the city lay on two rivers, with gardens all
round, and it was almost as large as Tabhriz. It probably stood on the
site of Bajarvan, where the prophet Elijah is said to have discovered
the Fountain of Life. For descriptions see the Arab geographers quoted
by Le Strange, op. cit., pp. 175, 176.

When the Patriarch heard that Nawruz was in Tabhriz,
he decided to
leave the town, and on foot he managed to return to his Cell in
Maraghah. He had nothing to hope for from Kazan, and took refuge in his
Cell for a few days,. but the spies of Nawruz found out where he was,
and again he sought safety in flight. That winter he sent a messenger
to the king to describe his sad plight, but the man returned in haste
as if fleeing for his life. In 1295 Nawruz brought a written authority
to the Patriarch, ordering him to disgorge the 10,000 dinars which
he had received from Kaikhato, and to escape a severe beating the
Patriarch borrowed 2,000 dinars in the town and gave it to the
Amir's men. The disciples managed to squeeze the Patriarch through an
opening in the wall of the upper room in which he was confined, and
having let him down by a rope he escaped. Whilst he was in hiding a
renegade Christian came to demand 36,ooo dinars from him, and
as he could not find the Patriarch he seized the men in the Cell, and
beat them and tortured them, and hung them up head downwards on the
walls during the days of bitter frost and snow. Their friends only
saved their lives by paying the robbers 16,000 dinars
(£8,000).

At the Easter Festival Mar Yahbh-Allaha sent a
messenger to King
Kazan at Mugan, and the Amirs took him into the presence and he
delivered the Patriarch's message to him and his blessing. Whether the
Patriarch had sent a large sum of money to the king, and his messenger
had bribed the Amirs, is not stated, but it is very probable. In any
case the king gave a Pukdana to him, and restored to him all his rights
and privileges. He further ordered that all moneys extorted from the
Patriarch should be returned to him and sent to him a gift of 5,000 dinars.
When the king's Edict reached the Patriarch, he had the doors of
his Cell opened, and his followers gathered about him again. A month or
two later he set out for Ujan, where the king was, and on his arrival
there Kazan received him with great honour, and seemed to regard him
with affection.

In 1297 the Arabs again plundered the Patriarch's
Cell in Maraghah,
and carried off the great seal which Mangu Khan (see p. 32) had given
to the Patriarch in his day (1251-6o), and the gold crown given by the
Pope to Mar Yahbh-Allaha, and the silver throne given to him by Argh6n.
On the following Sunday a serious riot broke out. The Arabs drove away
the Amirs, and stoned the Christians and pulled down the walls of the
Cell, and broke into the treasury of the church of St. George and
carried off everything there was in it. Queen Bfirgesin Argi hid the
Patriarch and the bishops with him in her house for five days, and then
they fled to Shakat6 and afterwards to Siyah Kuh. When the king went to
Hamadan early in 1297 the Patriarch went to him there, and Kazan issued
an Edict and order that the people of Maraghah should be beaten until
they restored to the Patriarch's Cell everything they had taken from
it. As a result a- very small portion of the stolen property
was returned to the Cell.

Soon after the riots in Maraghah serious trouble
broke out in Arbil,
and the Christians in the town were persecuted cruelly. A strong castle
or fortress stood on the top of the hill on which the town was built,
and the deep ditch which ran round it was partly enclosed by the town
wall. Arbil was a busy trading centre, and there were many Nestorian
traders in its bazaars. Mongol soldiers formed the garrison of the
town, and the general population was made up of Muslims and Christians
and Kayajy6 or "mountaineers," who were also Christians, and were
soldiers of the king. One day one of the last-named shot and killed a
well-known Arab of the town, and fighting broke out between the Arabs
and Christians, and in a short time the whole town was in an uproar.
There were agents of Nawruz in the town and they did all they could to
embitter the strife with the view of killing the Christians. During
Lent of the year, 1297, the soldiers captured the brother of Nawruz and
his wife and children, and Kazan the king had them slain. This act gave
new life to the rebellion, and the Arabs attacked the Fortress with
battering rams and ballistae. They captured Mar Abraham, Metropolitan
of Arbil, and many priests and believers, and some of them they killed,
and some they sold as slaves. The Mongols and their Kurdish allies
captured the Fortress, and looting became the order of the day; men who
were bitter enemies made friends temporarily in order to rob the
Christians. The king realized that Nawruz was the instigator and leader
of the rebellion, and he sent out his soldiers to capture him. They
discovered that he had fled to a fortress in Khorasan, and when the
governor delivered Nawruz into their hands they cut off his head and
sent it to Kazan.

But the fighting between the Syrians and Arabs went
on with ever
increasing bitterness, and King Kazan was greatly disturbed by the
reports of it which reached him. At length he sent to the Patriarch
Rashid ad-Din, the famous physician and historian who was put to death
by the Mongol Il-Khan in 1318, and an Amir called Tarmadad, who
proposed to Yahbh-Allaha that the Christians should evacuate Arbil and
live upon territory which he would give them. The Patriarch could not
agree to this suggestion, and when the king heard of his grief and
sorrow, he gave orders that the Christians were to be fed at his
expense and to stay in their homes in Arbil. A little later a peace was
patched up between the Syrians and Arabs in Arbil, and to effect this
cost the Patriarch 10,000 dinars, besides a certain sum of
money drawn from the revenues of the Cell. In spite of this the Arabs
continued their attacks on the Christians, and Nasir ad-Din persuaded
King Kazan to decree that all Christians should pay the poll-tax.

In the winter of 1297 the Patriarch went to Mugan,
and then on to
Tabhriz and dwelt in the royal camp all the summer. The king showed him
favour and gave him a new throne and a parasol, and the following
winter he stayed in Arbil. A little later the king ordered him to
return to Maraghah, and in 1299 he collected money for the building of
his monastery. In 1300 Kazan paid a three days' visit to the Patriarch,
and honoured him greatly. In 300-01 the Patriarch finished building his
monastery, and consecrated the church in September, 1301. The cost of
building the monastery was 420,000 zuze, or between
£40,000 and £50,000. In 1302 the king bestowed a Paiza upon
the Patriarch, and gave him many rich vestments. In 1303 the Patriarch
went to Baghdad, which he had not visited for nine' years, and then he
went to visit King Kazan, who was in camp at Hillah, and concluded with
him arrangements that were very favourable to the Christians. He
returned to Maraghah, where the king went to visit him, and gave the
royal cloak which he was wearing to the Patriarch as a mark of his
affection. The king passed the night in the monastery, and saw a vision
in which three angels came to him and healed him of some disease which
he had in his feet. On the following morning he gave the Patriarch a
gold cross containing a piece of the wood of the True Cross, which had
been sent to him by the Pope. Later in the year Kazan sent to him one
of his own riding horses, and a robe of honour, and vessels of crystal
and inlaid glazed porcelain (?) vases. In May, 1304, the king died and
his body was brought to Tabriz and buried in the tomb which he had
built there. He was succeeded by Uljaito, a son of Arghon, who ascended
the throne in the following July.

Mar Yahbh-Allaha rejoiced greatly when Uljaito
became king, for he
had baptized him, and the young prince ran in and out of the Cell
whenever he pleased, and he and the Patriarch were great friends. But
whilst the boy was growing up he was indoctrinated with the tenets of
Islam, and when he became king his feeling towards the Christians was
one of hatred. When he met the Patriarch he treated him with courtesy
and the honour which was his due, but the affection which he had at one
time felt for him had departed. The Muslims had a good friend in him,
and they tried to persuade him to turn the church in Tabhriz into a
mosque, and to confiscate the endowments, and to seize the monastery in
Maraghah,

In 1304--05 the Patriarch received the Pukdana, or
Imperial
authorization, to be the Patriarch of the East, and he went to Arbil
and built a Cell there. In 1306 the poll-tax was imposed on the
Christians, and though the Patriarch appealed to the king for its
remission no change was made., In 1305 Uljaito completed the building
of the city of Sultaniyah which was begun by his father Arghon; it lay
about half way between Abhar and Zanjan, and was the capital city of
the Il-Khan dynasty. In 1308, during a hunting expedition he visited
the monastery at Maraghah, and the monks went out to meet him. He
discussed the Christian religion with the director, and then went to
the Cell of the Patriarch, and sat upon his throne, and discoursed
freely and affably with them. He gave them five pieces of beautiful
stuff, and promised to remit the poll-tax and every other burden laid
on the monastery. The Patriarch was absent from the monastery when the
king came there, but he followed him and overtook him at the river
Gakto and succeeded in getting from him a special decree ordering that
the Christians were not to be taxed. On his return to Tabhriz, Uljaito
sent to the Patriarch a riding mule and a robe of honour, and he showed
him many favours, and assigned to him the whole of the poll-tax
collected in Arbil.

About this time the king condemned a certain Zayn
ad-Din Balo to
prison in Arbil for stealing the moneys entrusted to him to feed the
soldiers, and he sent an Arab called Nasir there to keep guard over
him. This man was of an evil disposition and joined the Arabs who
wished to turn out the Christians from the Fortress, and assisted them
secretly in storing arms and the munitions of war, and in planning
attacks on the Christians. And now began the conspiracy which resulted
in the massacre of Christians at Arbil. This Nasir and his brother
Hajji Dalkandi and the Amir Suti succeeded in obtaining an Edict
ordering the Christians to evacute the Fortress, and giving the Arabs
power to take it by assault if they would not. The Patriarch was
persuaded to come down, and he was taken to the monastery of Tar'il.
The conspirators wished him to order the Christians to come down, but
when he tried to get them to do so they refused, and would only go as
far as the church. As soon as they were in the, church some of the
Arabs fell upon them with swords, and as they rushed from the church
others shot them with arrows; but the Christians managed to reach the
gates where they fought with the Arabs the greater part of a day and a
night. From that time on Christians were killed at sight in the streets
of Arbil, some were stabbed, and some beaten to death, young women were
stripped naked and chased through the streets, women with child were
ripped open, and the children were killed and thrown in a heap at the
city gate. The churches and houses of the Christians and the Cell of
the. Patriarch were razed to the ground.

The remainder of the Syriac narrative contains a
detailed account of
the intrigues which were carried on by the Mongols and Kurds and Arabs
against the Patriarch and the Christians of Arbil generally. They lied
to the Patriarch and they lied to the king, who quietly but steadily
supported the Muslims. Every now and then the king was shamed into
showing a little kindness to the Patriarch and the Christians, but his
officers knew that in his heart of hearts he hated them and they acted
accordingly. The end and aim of all their effects was to eject the
Christians from Arbil and to kill them. The Arabs captured Arbil in
13io and they slew every man whom they could not sell as slaves; the
women, virgins and matrons they gave to any man who wanted them.

Meanwhile the Patriarch was a fugitive, without
money, or servants,
or baggage, and but for the gifts that were given to him secretly he
would have starved. He went once more to the Royal Camp and saw king
Oljaito and blessed him; he gave the drinking-cup into the king's
hands, and the king placed the cup in the Patriarch's hand, but neither
spoke a word. Then the Patriarch knew that there was no help to be got
from the king and he retired from the presence broken-hearted. He
transacted such business as was possible and then he returned to his
monastery in Maraghah, fully determined never to approach the Mongol
camp again. And he said, "The service of the Mongols is wearisome, i.e.
loathsome to me." In the summer of the following year (1311) he went to
Tabhriz to see his friend Irnadjin and was honourably entreated by him
and his wife Kekh-shek, the daughter of King Ahmad. They gave him
10,000 dinars and two riding horses, and the Amir endowed the
church of Mar Shalita, in which his parents and wives were buried, with
the revenues of a village. In the following year 1312) the Amirs
brought the Patriarch's case before the Council, and the king settled
upon him an annuity of 5,000 dinars, and the revenues of
certain villages near Baghdad. The Patriarch lived in his monastery for
five years, and died in November, 1317; he was buried in his own
monastery. During his Patriarchate he had ordained seventy-five
bishops.

THE IL-KHANS OF PERSIA

The Il-Khans with whom Mir Yahbh-Allaha came in
contact were:--

1. ABGA, ABGHA, or ABAGHA, the eldest son of Hulagu
Khan, who
reigned from 1265-81. He married Mary, a natural daughter of the
Emperor Michael Paleologus who had been sent to marry Hulagu, who died
before her arrival.

He corresponded with the Pope and with Edward I,
King of England,
and a letter from the latter to him is printed by Sykes, History of
Persia, vol. ii, p. 100. During his reign Marco Polo made his.
journey through Persia to China.

2. AHMAD TAKUDAR OGHLU, a brother of Abhgha, reigned
from 1281-84.
He was baptized when a child and given the name of Nicholas, but as
soon as he succeeded to the throne he declared himself to be a Muslim.
Arghon, son of Abhgha, rebelled, and was at first defeated, but the
army declared for him and Ahmad fled; he was soon captured, and he was
put to death in Mongol fashion by having his back broken.

3. ARGHON, the son of Abhgha, reigned from 1284-91.
He sent a
mission to the Pope in 1285; another in 1287-88, a third in 1289-90,
and a fourth in 1290-91. The texts of the Pope's letters to him, and
translations of his letters to the Pope are given by Chabot in Appendix
I of his work. Arghon proposed a joint attack on the Muslims in the
Holy Land, but though every king and the Pope were willing to attack,
no attack was made

4. KAIKHATO was the son of Abhgha and reigned from
1291-95. He was
reckless and extravagant and indulged in excesses of every kind; the
army abandoned him and he was strangled.

5. BAIDU, the cousin of Kaikhato, reigned for a few
months during
the summer of 1295. His army deserted him and went over to Kazan who
ordered him to be murdered.

6. KAZAN, the son of Arghon reigned from the end of
n2g5 to I3o4.
One of his first acts was to declare himself a Muslim, and to repudiate
the suzerainty of the Kakhans, because they were pagans. He supported
the Muslims in all their excesses, and permitted his people to destroy
churches and synagogues everywhere. He invaded Syria in I299 and
defeated the Egyptians at Horns, but on his second invasion of that
country in I3o3 he was defeated. He corresponded with European kings
and the Pope who, strangely enough, believed that he was a Christian at
heart. King Edward I of England sent Geoffrey de Langley on a mission
to him, and he brought back a leopard in a cage. Kazan effected many
great reforms in his country, and tried to rule with wisdom and
justice. He was a great builder, and he built at Tabhriz a splendid
mosque, a mausoleum, colleges, and a library, and a hospital and an
observatory. He gathered together a number of learned men to staff
these institutions, and they received good salaries, and the royal
endowments were sufficient to provide for the upkeep of the buildings
and the maintenance of a considerable body of students. He was the
greatest of the fl-Khans.

7. MUHAMMAD KHUDABANDA, commonly known as ULJAITO,
i.e. "the
Fortunate " or "Lucky One," was the brother of Kazan and reigned from
1304-16. Though he was brought up as a Christian he embraced the tenets
of Islam, but the sovereigns of Europe believed that his sympathies
were entirely Christian.

8. ABU SA'ID, the son of Khudabanda reigned from
1316-35. He came to
the throne when a boy of twelve, and though Mar Yahbh-Allaha did not
die until the following year, it is very doubtful if the Patriarch had
any communication with this king: Many of the nobles rebelled during
the reign of Abu Said, who was a feeble ruler, and when he died a
period of anarchy set in. One of the greatest nobles of the time was
Husen Jalair, who had married a daughter of Arghon, and he and other
Amirs set up one Khan after another, e.g. Muhammad (1336-38), Tugha
Timur (1338-51), Jahan Timur (I339-41)~ Sati Beg (1339), Suleman
(1339-43), Nushirwan (1344), etc. Jalair and his successors reigned
from 1336-I411.

THE DECLINE OF CHRISTIANITY IN CENTRAL ASIA AND CHINA

Christianity received no support from the feeble
Il-Khans of the
XIVth century, and though details are wanting, it is quite certain that
the Nestorians were cruelly persecuted; the goods of their merchants
were confiscated, their churches were destroyed, and those who refused
to accept Islam and could not escape were slain. It is probable that
large numbers became Muslims, and excused themselves for so doing by
saying that it was better to accept a religion which proclaimed God and
His Unity, than to revert to paganism and idolatry. Before the end of
the XIVth century Nestorianism had practically ceased to be in Persia,
Central Asia, and China but Patriarchs of the East were still
consecrated at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and there were many Nestorians in
Baghdad and in the districts near Baghdad.

In 1392-93 Tamerlane (Timur-i-Leng, or the Lame Tim-hr)
captured Baghdad, and nameless atrocities were perpetrated in the city
by his soldiers; the Christians who managed to escape fled for their
lives to the mountains of Kurdistan and the districts near Mosul. The
power of the Nestorian Church had departed. About 1551, on the death of
Simon VII, Patriarch of the East, a dispute broke out at Baghdad as to
his successor, and some of the Nestorians appealed to Pope Julius III,
and asked him to consecrate a Patriarch for them. There were two
candidates for the throne, Simon bar-Mama and Sulaka; the latter went
to Rome, had an audience of the Pope and was consecrated Patriarch by
him in:1553. The Nestorians who were under the jurisdiction of Sulaka,
or John Sulaka, were known as "Chaldeans," as are their descendants at
the present day. Thus the Nestorians divided themselves into two
sections, each having its own Patriarch, and quarrels between the two
Patriarchs were not of rare occurrence.

Some of the Nestorian Patriarchs and bishops wished
to join
themselves to the Roman Church, and Elias II, Bishop, or "Patriarch" of
Mosul sent two embassies, in 1607 and 1610, to solicit the friendship
of Pope Paul IV; but nothing carne of it. Elias III, also Bishop of
Mosul, in 1657 made proposals for union with the Church of Rome, and in
his letter to Rome said he was ready to join the Church if the Pope
would let the Nestorians have a place of worship of their own in the
city, and would make no attempt to alter the doctrine or discipline of
that sect. Naturally his proposals were rejected. The mountain
Nestorians to the present day maintain that their Mar Shim'un is
entitled to be regarded as the Patriarch of the Nestorians, as being a
descendant of the Mar Shim'un, who was Patriarch in 1450. A list of the
Nestorian and Chaldean Patriarchs will be found in Bar Hebraeus, Chron.
Eccles., ed. Abbeloos and Lamy, tome iii, col. 566 ff.; and see
Badger, Nestorians and their Rituals, vol. i, p.145.
The heads of the Nestorian communities at Diyar Bakr, Mosul and Wan are
always called Yusuf, Elias, and Shim'un respectively. The last named
resides at Kudshanis, near Julamerk. A good description of the village
and the country round about will be found in Earl Percy's Highlands
of Asiatic Turkey, London, 1901, p. 168 ff.

THE MODERN NESTORIANS

The greater number of the Nestorians live in the
country of
Kurdistan, and until recent years many were to be found in the country
west of Urmiyah, and between Wan and Mosul. The first settlement of the
Nestorians in Kurdistan seems to have taken place after their
persecution by Kasan and Timur-i-Leng; Badger thought that there were
no Christians in Kurdistan before the middle of the XIVth century. At
that period the Kurds were quickly helped by the flight of the
Nestorians into their country, for the newcomers were men of superior
intellectual capacity, and brought with them the experience of traders,
and the skill of craftsmen. In other words the Kurds and the Nestorians
were useful to each. As time went on the Nestorians gained a great deal
of power, and the Patriarch was the spiritual head of all the
Nestorians in Persia and Kurdistan.

As a result of the passing of Kurdistan under the
rule of the Turks
in the first half of the XIXth century, and the intrigues of the native
chief of the Kurds with them, serious trouble broke out about 184o and
the Nestorians were the sufferers. In 1843 the house of the American
Missionaries in Ashitha was seized by Zinir Beg and turned into a
fortress garrisoned by 4oo Kurds. The Christians attacked the fortress
and slew twenty of its garrison, but soon after Badr Khan Beg sent Zoo
horsemen, who massacred men, women, and children and filled their bags
with the ears which they cut off from the dying and the dead, and
despatched them as a trophy to their master! Every church in the
districts of Tiyari and Dez was destroyed, all the chiefs were
massacred besides 3,000 of the laity, 30 priests, and 60 deacons,, and
the mother, brother, and nephew of Mar Shim'un. The Porte issued orders
to stop these proceedings, but Badr Khan Beg and Nur Allah refused to
obey them, and they levied taxes when and how they pleased. The
massacres in the province of Tehoma followed in 1846. Five hundred
Nestorians were killed in cold blood, the churches were razed to the
ground and the service books burnt, and all the villages were
destroyed. The representatives of the Great Powers protested to the
Porte, and to such good purpose that Turkish troops were sent against
the Kurdish chiefs and they curtailed their power for mischief.

During the Great War, and in the troublous
times which
followed, the Nestorians again suffered, and their churches, houses,
and homes were destroyed, the men were murdered, the women were
violated, and the children were shamefully ill-used and, slain. The
buildings of the European and American Missions at Urmiyah were
destroyed; the printing presses smashed, and manuscripts and printed
books alike were piled up in heaps and burnt. The general objects of
the various missions to the Nestorians-Roman Catholic, American
Presbyterian, the Archbishop of Canterbury's, and the Russian Mission
are described, and their work well summarized by Mr. Athelstan Riley in
the latter part of the article NESTORIANS, in the Encyclopedia
Britannica, vol. xix, p. 409. The literary work which has been
done by the great missions to the Nestorians is of priceless value. The
Americans printed at Urmiyah the fine quarto edition of the Peshitta
version of the Old and New Testaments in Syriac, and the modern version
in the Fallaehi dialect in parallel columns. The Dominicans at Mosul
have printed a fine folio edition of the Syriac Old and New Testaments,
and the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission printed the TAKSA, or
service book. A list of all the books printed by the American
Missionaries at Urmiyah and by the Dominicans at Mosul would fill
several pages.

THE CREED OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA III

Some writers on Nestorianism assert that the
Nestorian Church was
reconciled to Rome in the year 1304, and others deny it, but as a
matter of fact there is good reason to believe that in that year Mar
Yahbh-Allaha III did write a letter at Masaghah to Pope Benedict XI in
which he stated his creed in detail. As far as I know the text of the
letter, which may have been written either in Syriac 'or Mongolian, has
never been published, but a Latin version, of it is extant, and has
been printed by Mosheim (Hist. Tart. Eccles., Appendix No.
43), and by Chabot (Histoire du Patriarche, p.251
ff.): In his letter the Patriarch belauds the Pope and all his great
and good works, and writes to him partly as an august spiritual
potentate, and partly as a friend. With the opening paragraphs we need
not deal, but the following extracts in which the Catholicus describes
his belief are of importance. He, provided that we can be sure that the
Latin translations are correct, and that they were made from a genuine
letter of his, says:

From paragraph I, it is clear that the Patriarch
believed that the
Holy Spirit did proceed from the Son, whereas Rabban Sawma
believed the contrary.

From paragraph II, we see that the Patriarch only
acknowledges one
Person, and not two as does Rabban Sawma; he also acknowledges the
divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary, and subscribes to the Canons of
the Council of Nicea. His recognition of the supremacy of the Pope is
expressed thus:

The year 1615 of the Era of Seleucus began on
October 1, 1303, and
the Patriarch arrived in Maraghah on the eve of Pentecost, i.e. on
May 16, 1304.

Supposing the Patriarch's letter to be genuine,
there is no doubt
that he was anxious to join the Roman Church, but we have no right to
assume that his views represented those of the Nestorian Church in
India, Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Syria.

APPENDIX A TO INTRODUCTION

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE FIRST MONGOL EMPIRE

Of the early history of the Mongols no records seem
to have been
preserved. Authorities differ about the meaning of the name "Mongol,"
but the Chinese historians say that it means "brave." The Mongols are
said to have existed when the kings of the Tang Dynasty were reigning, i.e.
about 1766 B.C. They are described as a branch of the Hsi Wei, and
they lived at the foot of the Burkhan Mountains, between the Onon and
Kerulan rivers, being vassals of the Khitans and, later, of the Chinese
Tartars. The Mongol writers speak of a semi-mythical ancestor called
"Budantsar," and say that a descendant of his called "Kabul "succeeded
in throwing off the yoke of the Chins, and in founding the "Great
Mongol Nation." His grandson Yessugai added largely to the Mongol
territories, and it was his son Temujine, by his wife Ogelou, who was
the famous Jenghis, or Jenghiz, or Chingiz Khan.

When Yessugai died, several of the tribes revolted,
but the brave
widow Ogelou managed to keep those that were loyal together, and
Temujine, at the age of 27, became Kakhan of the Arlids. Between A.D.
1187 and 1193 he increased his power and added largely to his
dominions. He defeated the Merkits on Lake Baikal in 1203, and the
Nimais in 1204, and in 1206 he was master of all Mongolia; and with the
consent of all the Khans, he assumed the title of "Chingiz Khan;" i.e.
"Greatest Khan." In 1208 he defeated Kushluh, chief of the Naimans,
and Tukhtul, chief of the Merkits, and invaded China, and the three
great divisions of his army were successful everywhere; he himself
advanced as far as Wei Hai Wei, in the modern province of Shantung. The
Chinese Emperor Hsfian Tsung sued for peace, and agreed to pay tribute,
but Chingiz Khan continued to harry the country until at length he
captured the capital Yen King. During the absence of Chingiz in China,
Kushluh invaded the territory of the Uighurs, but the Muslims deserted
Kushluh, who was a Christian, and his domains passed into the
possession of Chingiz Khan. About this time Chingiz Khan made a treaty
with Muhammad, Shah of Persia, which secured the' right of way for the
Mongols to the countries on the West. But a party of Mongol merchants
were murdered treacherously by one of the Shah's governors and their
goods confiscated, and the envoy sent by Chingiz Khan to demand
reparation was tortured to death. Thereupon Chingiz and his four sons
Jutchi, Jagatai, Ogdai and Tule or Tului, set out from Kara Karam,
marched through Almalid, crossed the Jaxartes, stormed Otrar and razed
it to the ground, and slew, it is said, 160,000 of the 400,000 men who
were sent to bar their progress. Bokhara and Samarkand were destroyed,
and the Mongol generals invaded Georgia in 1222 and drove the Kipchacks
out of their homes, and defeated the Russian armies on the Kaleza.
Thus, in 20 years, Chingiz was lord of all the country from the China
Sea to the banks of the Dnieper (Plate VI).

Chingiz died (1227) near the Liu-P'an Mountain, in
the present Kansu
province, and his body was taken to Mongolia and buried in the Valley
of Ke Keeng. The vast Mongol Empire was then divided thus The country
from Kanyahk, and Kharezm to Bulgar and Saksim was given to the family
of Jutchi, the eldest son of Chingiz; the country from the border of
the territory of the Uighurs to Bokhara, to Jagatai or Jargatai; and
Ogotai (or Ogatai or Ogdai) received the country of the Naimans; and
Tu1e became lord of the home country.

Ogdai succeeded Chingiz as Kakhan, and in 1234 he
captured Pien, the
capital of the Chins, and annexed North China; the Chinese Emperor Ai
Tsung hanged himself. In 1236 Ogdai sent expeditions against Corea and
the Sungs, and Eastern Europe. The Mongols invaded Russia and destroyed
Rianzan, Moscow and Kieff, and then marched into Hungary and Poland. In
1241 Prince Batu took Esztergom by assault. Soon after this, news
reached the Mongol princes that Ogdai (Plate VII) had drunk himself to
death (December 11, 1241), and they evacuated Europe, and returned to
Kara Karam.

Ogdai was succeeded by Kuyuk, or Kuyuek, who
reigned some
say three, and some say seven, years. His physicians and chief
officials were Christians, and a church-tent stood close to the royal
pavilion. Kuyuk was succeeded by Mengku, or Mangu, the eldest soil of
Tule, and nephew of Ogdai, on July 1, 1251, and he promptly put to
death his cousin's widow and the royal princes. Soon after his
accession dissensions broke out in Persia, and Mangu sent his brother
Hulagu to restore order. Hulagu marched through Samarkand and Kesh,
crossed the Oxus, and by way of Balkh invaded Kohistan. The king, Rokn
ad-Din Gfirshah II, was killed (1256), and 800,000 of his subjects were
massacred. Hulagu then marched on to Baghdad, which he captured and
pillaged in an atrocious fashion (February, 1258). Whilst at Baghdad
Hulagu ordered his astronomer Nasir ad-Din to build an observatory at
Maraghah. Hulagu next attacked Aleppo, which he captured and sacked,
and went on to Damascus (1260), the governor of which had sense enough
to surrender. Whilst preparing to capture Jerusalem, news of Mangu's
death reached him, and having appointed Kitubuka commander of his army,
he returned to Mongolia. When the Kuriltai, i.e. the assembly of Chiefs
to elect a successor to Mangu, took place, Hulagu was empowered to rule
over all the lands which he had conquered, but he declared himself to
be an independent king. Thereupon he assumed the title of "Il-Khan,"
and so became the founder of the line of Il-Khan kings, who ruled over
Persia until 1335

Whilst Hulagu was conquering in the West, his
brothers Mangu and
Kublai were gaining victory after victory in Southern China, and
finally Kublai, the second son of Tule, who was famous even then for
his good sense, and humanity and moderation, named himself "Kakhan," i.e.
Khan-in-Chief. During his reign of thirty-five years (he died in 1294)
he made the Mongol Empire the greatest in the world. He subjugated the
whole of that part of China which lies to the south of the Yangtze
river. He transferred his capital from Kara Karam to Kambulic, now
known as Pekin, the "Ta Tu" or "Great Capital," and he made Kaiping his
"Shang Tu" or "Second Capital." This tended to make him more of a
Chinese Emperor than a Mongol Khan, and his Empire reached from the
Yellow Sea in the East to the Black Sea on the West, and from Northern
Mongolia in the North to Tonquin in the South He adopted the customs of
the Chinese, and patronized their literature, and supported all native
institutions. The Yuan Dynasty, founded by Kublai soon began to
decline, and it came to an end in 1368. Though Kublai had become a
convert to Lamaism, or the Faith of Tibet, he did all he could to make
Christianity prosper in China. He gave permission to Jean de
Montecorvin to build a church at Kambulic in 1292, but he seems to have
pinned his faith to Lamaism, after his conquests in Tibet, as a
powerful influence for good in his kingdom. The fact that Ser Marco
Polo, the Venetian, was vice-president of Kublai's War Council says
much for the Kakhan's broad minded-ness and toleration.

THE MONGOLS AND CHRISTIANITY

KUYUK, or Kuyuck, the third Kakhan (1248), had
leanings towards
Christianity, for he had a church-tent set up close to his royal pavilion. MANGU, the fourth Kakhan
(1251), treated the Christians as he treated the Muslims, Jews,
Buddhists, and followers of Lamaism, that is to say, he favoured no one
religion. He received with kindness the Mission sent to the Mongols by
Louis IX, in 1252, under the leadership of William of Rubruck, and gave
its members a soft answer, but about the same time the Mongols utterly
refused to submit to the demands which the over-zealous John de Plano
Carpini and Ascelinus and others made upon them. (See ROCKHILL, W. The
Journey of William of Rubruck, London, 1900; and BEAZLEY, C. R. The
Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, London,
1903.) Hulagiu Khan, brother of Kublai, the last of the Kakhans, and
founder of the Il-Khan Dynasty, or Western Khans, was a Christian, and
his mother was a Christian.3
He was a fanatical adversary of the Muslims. Having slain Rokn ad-Din
Gurshah II, and laid waste Kohistan he marched on Baghdad, and besieged
it. He battered down its walls, and entered it in triumph in January,
1258, and straightway massacred many thousands of the inhabitants; the
Christians, however, were spared, and shut up in one of the quarters of
the city, whilst he laid waste all the other quarters (Bar Hebraeus,
ed. Bedjan, p: 505) (Plates VIII, IX). As a Christian, he rejoiced at
the abolition of the 'Abbasid Khalifate. He intended to march into
Palestine and to wrest Jerusalem from the Saljuks, who had gained
possession of it in1071, but after leaving Damascus he
suffered a serious defeat at 'Ain Jalut at the hands of Al-Muzaffar
Kutuz, and so Jerusalem escaped his wrath. The efforts of Hulagu to
help the Christians were ably seconded by hiswife, who was
also a Christian, and was called "Dakuz (or Tokuz) Khatun" (Bar
Hebraeus, ed. Bedjan, p. 491, 1. 15). She is described as "the
believing Queen, and atrue Christian," who" raised up the horn
of the Christians in all the earth."This lady had been his father's
wife, but Hiulagu took her to wife "according to the custom of the
Mongols." She died during "the days of summer," in the year her husband
died, "and there was great mourning among the Christians
throughout the world at the departure of these two great lights, who
made the Christian Faith to triumph" (Bar Hebraeus, ibid., p.521). Hulagu had for a long time wished to marry Mary, a daughter
of Michael VIII Palaeologos (1261-83), and the princess was dispatched
to Mongolia in due course. According to some authorities Hulagu died
soonafter her arrival, and according to others she did not
arrive until after his death, when she became the wife of Abhaka,
Hulagu's son and successor. She is probably to be identified with the
"great Queen Kuthai Khatun," who went in person to Maraghah, and led
out the Christians, who carried crosses hanging on spears, to perform
the ceremony of the "Blessing of the Waters "on the day of the Epiphany
(Bar Hebraeus, ibid., p.539, at the foot). Arghon,
the son of Abhaka, had at least two Christian wives, and some of his
children were baptized. Kaikhato, his brother, treated the followers of
all religions with respect, but he was a Christian at heart, and in his
days Christianity flourished. After a short reign of four years
(1291-95) he was murdered, and his brother Baidu occupied the throne
for four or five months; before the end of 1295 he too was murdered,
and was succeeded by Kazan, a son of Arghon. This Khan was a good
Christian, and a true friend of the Christians, as will be seen from
the narrative on p. 50 f.; he died in 1304 and was succeeded by his son
Oljaito, who was, when a child, a pupil of the Nestorian Patriarch,
Yahbh-Allaha III. But when quite young he absorbed the doctrines of
Islam, and the Arabs learned to know him as a friend and ally. During
his reign the Nestorian Church was destroyed in China, Central Asia,
'Irak al-Ajami and Mesopotamia. The dynasties of the Kakhans and the
II-Khans lasted for about 160 years, i.e. from about 1200-1360.

THE MONGOL LANGUAGE

The Mongolian characters are derived from those of
the Uighfirs,
which were in turn derived from the letters of the Syriac alphabet
which was brought into Mongolia by the Nestorians. They have been
influenced by Indian and Tibetan scribes, and the Mongolian script was
brought into its present form by learned Lamas in the XIIIth century.
The Tibetan Lama called Phags-pa is said to have introduced the
alphabet called Galik. The Mongolian characters are written
perpendicularly from the top of the page to the bottom (like the
Chinese), and the lines follow from left to right (Li Ung Bing, Outlines
of Chinese History, Shanghai, 1914, p. 208).

THE PROGRESS OF MUHAMMADANISM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

The religion of Muhammad the Prophet began to
decay in
Persia, Syria and Palestine, and Eastern Europe as soon as the Mongols
began their campaigns in the West. The Mongols destroyed every person
and thing that opposed their progress, and they turned the regions over
which they passed into wastes; the Muslims suffered greatly as being in
Mongol eyes the enemies of God and man. The Christian princes and kings
of Eastern Europe, and the Popes of Rome, endeavoured to make treaties
and alliances with the Mongols, and sent many Missions to them, but
none of these potentates realized that the Mongols only wished to gain
possession of Jerusalem because they wanted to destroy the Arabs who
were in Syria and in Palestine, and to massacre their Saljuk
supporters. When the Mongol Kakhans and Khans saw that there was no
military assistance to be gained from Europe, their Christian_ zeal
began to abate, and the Western Mongols began to fraternize with Syrian
and Egyptian Muslims, and Islam began to make progress among them. At
length Takudhar (died 1284), the son of Hulagu by his wife Kuthai
Khatun, embraced the Faith of the Children of Hagar (Hagarenes), even
whilst he was showing the greatest kindness to the Christians, for he
reduced their taxes, and made splendid gifts to the churches and
monasteries. He was also known as "Ahmad," but whether he adopted this
Arab name to indicate his conversion to Islam, or whether it was given
him by his family and people is not certain. (For his reign, see Bar
Hebraeus, ibid., p.546.) The astute generals of the
Arab armies in Western Asia made no great effort to destroy
Christianity among the Mongols during the lifetime of Kublai Khan, for
it was he who had given the Patriarch Yahbh-Allaha III, when a young
man, permission to go to Jerusalem, and had furnished him and his
companion with a "Yarlikh," or "Pulkdana," i.e. a written document
which showed all whom it might concern that they had his authority to
travel. But when Kublai Khan died in 1294, the Muslims began to rebel
against the Mongols, and very soon the Arabs everywhere rose against
the Christians. The last of the Il-Khans were lazy and feeble men, and
were '-powerless to stay the inroads of the Arabs from the South and
West. Churches and monasteries were looted and burnt, and if they
escaped this fate they were turned into mosques; the Christians were
attacked by Mongols and Arabs alike, and their possessions were carried
off, and their houses q~ burnt. The young men were sold as slaves, the
'young women were drafted into harims, and the aged, both male and
female, died of disease and starvation in the streets. The. Arabs hated
the Mongols both as men and as Christians, and their memories of the
atrocities committed at Baghdad by Hulagu, nerved them to fight to the
death, sparing none.

APPENDIX B TO INTRODUCTION

THE NESTORIAN STELE AT HSI-AN-FU

This venerable monument is so
important for
the history of Nestorianism in China., that it is necessary to
supplement the brief statements made about it above (see p. 12) with
the following details. Much has been written about the Stele, and one
of the most interesting accounts of it is given by H. Havret, in his La
stele chritienne de Si-ngan fou, Paris, 1895. He supplies a
facsimile of the whole of the Chinese and Syriac texts, with a
translation, and a series of chapters full of the most useful
information. The reproduction of the Stele given above (Plate III) and
the drawing of the Cross upon it (Plate X) have been made from his
work. In 1916 Professor P. Y. Saeki, of Tokyo, under the title The
Nestorian Monument in China, published a full history of the
Stele, and reproduced the texts in type, and added English translations
and many luminous notes thereon. The Stele originally stood in the
temple of Ch'ung-sh6ng-ssu, which was situated outside the western gate
of the city of Hsi-an-fu in long. 109° 30' and 34° I7' North
Lat. In June, 1907, Dr. Fritz von Holm visited the city with the view
of attempting to purchase it by any kind of means from the local
authorities. When the Governor of the Province of Shenshi heard of
this, he ordered the Stele to be removed from the place where it had
stood since it was discovered in A.D. 1625(?) to the Pei-lin, or
"Forest of Tablets," where a considerable number of stone monuments are
housed. Dr. Fritz von Holm failed to purchase it, but he succeeded in
obtaining a very faithful and beautiful replica of it, which he
transported to America and deposited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York on the 14th June, 1908. The material of the Stele is black,
sub-granular, oolithic limestone from the quarries of Fu-p'inghsien.
The Monument is a little more than g feet in height, 3 feet 6 inches in
width, and 12 inches in thickness, and it weighs about two tons. The
sculptured decorations on the rounded portion represent an immense
Pearl placed between the two mythical creatures called "Kumbhira,"
which are of Buddhist origin. Under the Pearl is a triangle of double
lines, with concave sides, and under the apex there are cut in outline:
1. A cross, resting on a cloud, 2. A lotus flower. 3. Two floral sprays
or branches of a flowering shrub (see Plate X). The Cross represents
Christianity, the Cloud Muhammadanism, and the Lotus Buddhism; the
symbolism of the floral sprays is unknown to me. The cross seems to be
a floriated variety of the Maltese cross, and probably represents some
cross which the Nestorian monks had seen in the West, perhaps in
sculptured reliefs in Byzantine buildings. It has been compared with
the cross on the altar slab from the tomb of St. Thomas (see above, p.
8), but the resemblance is not very close.

More useful for comparison are the reproductions
from rubbings of
two crosses published by the Rev. A. C. Moule in the Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society for April, 1928, pp. 448-53. No. 1was
found in the ruins of the Shih-tzti-ssu, or Monastery of the Cross near
Pekin which, Mr. Moule thinks, may mark the site of the cave in the
mountain in which Bar Sawma lived for seven years. These crosses stood
at the corners of the terrace in front of the Temple Hall; on the cross
(No. 2), which stood at the south-east corner, is a Syriac inscription
which, according to the Peshitta, reads "Look ye Onto Him, and hope in
Him" [and your faces shall not be put to shame] (Ps. xxxiv. 5). The
Hebrew text has "They looked to Him, and were lightened, and their
faces were not put to shame." In the case of two other crosses
published by Mr. Moule (op. cit., p. 451) the shape is different: the
arms axe quite plain and their ends are pointed. No. F was found in 1638in the Shui-lu Monastery, in the city of Ch'fian-chow, and No. 2 on
the shore of the East Lake, a mile outside the east gate of Ch'uanchou.
In No. 1 the cross springs from a lotus flower, and in No. 2 from a
cloud. For descriptions of other Chinese crosses the reader is referred
to the works quoted by Mr. Moule in his interesting article (p. 453).

Under the triangle containing the cross
(Plate Xl), the
cloud, and the lotus, are engraved, the nine clearly cut, large Chinese
characters, arranged vertically in three lines which form the "Titular
Heading" of the Stone. They are thus translated by Professor P. Y.
Saeki: "The Monument Commemorating the Propagation of the Ta-chin
Luminous Religion in the Middle Kingdom." The inscription below it, a
portion of which is reproduced, consists of one thousand nine hundred
Chinese characters, fifty Syriac words, and seventy-two names of
Nestorians in the old Estrangela Syriac characters.

The historical portion of the Chinese text is very
important. It
states that one A to-pen (see Professor Saeki's notes), of the kingdom
of Ta-chin (Judea, Syria) came to China in A.D. 635~and arrived in
Ch'ang-an, and the Emperor sent his minister, Fang Hsiuan-ling, with a
guard of honour to bring him to the palace. He brought with him the
Sutras (i.e. the Scriptures) which were translated in the Imperial
Library, and His Majesty, having studied the "Way," became convinced of
its truth and gave special orders for its propagation. In 638 he issued
a Rescript declaring that "This Teaching is helpful to all creatures,
and beneficial to all men. So let it have free course throughout the
Empire." A Ta-ch'in monastery was built in the capital and 21 priests
were appointed to it. The Emperor Kao-Tsung (650-53) caused monasteries
to be built in every prefecture, and made A-to-pen the Great Patron and
Spiritual Lord of the Empire. The Emperor HsuanTsung (712-55) ordered
the royal princes to set up altars in the monasteries. The Emperor
Su-Tsung (756-62) rebuilt the monasteries of the Luminous Religion in
Ling-wu and four other countries, and the Emperor Tai-Tsung (763-79)
walked in the Way of the Silent-operation. And his successor likewise
observed the Luminous Religion.

The colophon says that the Stele was set up in the
second year of
the Chinn-chung period, i.e. A.D. 781, in the time of the Nestorian
priest Ning-Shu, and when Henan-fshe' II was Catholicus and Patriarch.
The latter sat from A.GR. 1085 = A.D. 774(= A.H. 157) to 780. He died
the year before it was set up, but the news of his death had not
reached China when the text was being engraved. A paragraph in Syriac
says that it was set up by Yazdbuzid, a priest of Kumdan, son -of
Milio, a priest from Balka, a city of Tahuristan in the year of the
Greeks 1092 = A.D. 781. Then follow in Chinese and Syriac characters,
the names of seventy-two officials of the Nestorian Church and monks.
After a long review of the various theories about the provenance of the
Stele, Professor Saeki decides that it was found at some place between
Hsi-an-fu and Chou-chih, in A.D. 1625. The name of its -finder is
unknown, and Mr. Moule thinks that it was set up first at Chou-chih and
removed to Hsi-an-fu at a later period.

TRANSLATION OF THE SYRIAC TEXT

I

THE PRAYER OF THE SYRIAN TRANSLATOR

(1)4
By the Power of
our Lord Jesus Christ I begin to write the History of the Father of
Fathers, and Governor (Mara) and Head of Pastors, MAR YAHBH ALLAHA
Catholicus and Patriarch of the East, and of RABBAN SAWMA, the
Visitor-General of the Eastern (i.e. Nestorian) Turks. O our Lord, help
me, and in Thy mercy bring me to the end [of the work]. Amen.

God, the Lord of the Universe, the Merciful and
Gracious, in the
superabundance of His grace hath brought all this (i.e. the visible
universe) into being. And that the race of mankind might be perfected
in the knowledge of the truth, and in good works (2), for the leading
of the doers of good, and directing in the right way those who could
step upwards, He sent His only-begotten Son down [to earth], and He put
on human flesh and hid His glory, and from behind His human covering He
made to shine forth the rays of His light. He hath annulled the laws
which were brutal, defective, and coarse, and hath spread abroad [in
their place] commandments that are spiritual, perfect, and refined. He
hath done away the sacrifices of animals by offering as a sacrifice His
Body and His Blood, and He hath made the whole world rich by the wisdom
of His knowledge. He hath spread out the net of His life-giving Gospel,
by means of His holy disciples in every country and quarter of the and
He hath cast the good seed of His preaching in all the earth. And the
four quarters of the universe were illumined by their disciples after
them, and they were also lighted up by the Orthodox Faith, and by the
glory of the Royal Trinity, and were made to be glorious by good (or
beautiful) actions and works that were perfect.

For the Word can neither be rejected nor made to be
of no effect,
for the Framer of the Law hath established it and sealed it, saying,
"Behold, I Myself am with you all the days, to the end of the
world,"(Matt. xxviii. 20). Now to the beginning (var., promise),
cleaveth the reward. Little by little, work (i.e. realization)
followeth the word until at length it maketh those who were without the
Law sons of God. For the Indians (Henduwaye), and the Chinese (Sinaye),
and other Oriental nations from various countries, became restrained
and submitted to the bridle of the fear of God, and their emotions and
their understandings were anointed by the Spirit. For a good
disposition availeth nothing if the mind and the actions do not agree
with the virtues, and the gift [of the Spirit] is not withheld when
good actions and healthy intentions are coupled with a blame-worthy
disposition. In what cloth it profit the Jews, who are of the seed of
Abraham, seeing that they have become aliens to the household of God?
And in what way do the Gentiles suffer [through not being of the seed
of Abraham] seeing that they have received [the Spirit] and have become
members of the household of God? To-day the Turks (Turkaye) have bowed
their necks under the yoke of the lordship of God, and they believe and
hold firmly the word of the Lord with their whole heart. Every man who
will not forsake father, and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, and take up his Cross and come after Me (3) is
not worthy to be my disciple (Luke xiv. 26, 27).

Now the hearing of this perfect commandment
straightway made the men
to marvel, the two warriors about whom the narrative is ready to speak,
and they cast away their longings, rejected parents and children, and
in short, renounced all the dominion (i.e. influence) of their bringing
up. And, like swift eagles, they renewed the youth of their minds in
works of toil and laborious lives until they attained their true Hope,
and from those labours which they had planted, they received for their
perfect sustenance the delicious fruits for which they longed.

Now therefore we will speak about the race of each
of them
separately, and about [their] country, and the different way in which
each was brought up, and how they dwelt together, and the mode of life
of each. And in the midst of their history we will write down some
account of the things which happened in their time,. to themselves, and
by means of them, and on account of them, and we will describe thing by
thing as it took place.

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORY OF RABBAN SAWMA

There was a certain man who was a believer, and he
was a nobleman
and a fearer of God. He was rich in the things of this world, and he
was well endowed with the qualities of nature; he belonged to a famous
family and a well-known tribe. His name was SHIBAN the Sa'ora (i.e. the
Inspector or Visitor--Periodeutes). He dwelt in the city which is
called KHAN BALIGH or KHAN BALIK (i.e. Pekin), that is to say (4) the
royal city in the country of the East. He married according to the law
a woman whose name was KEYAMTA. And when they had lived together for a
long time, and they had no heir, they prayed to God continually and
besought Him with frequent supplications not to deprive them of a son
who would continue [their] race. And He who giveth comfort in His
gracious mercy received their petition, and He showed them compassion.
For it is His wont to receive the entreaty of those who are broken of
heart, and-to hearken unto the groaning of those who make supplications
and petitions [to Him]. "Everyone who asketh receiveth; and he who
seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it is opened to him "(Matt.
vii. 8), He said, confidently concerning the certain hope. And behold,
this is performed for both orders (i.e. sexes), namely, men and women,
when petitions are presented with a right intention. For behold, Hanna,
the wife of Halkana was not prohibited, seeing that she made entreaty
with a right object (I Sam. i. 10 ff.), and the wife of Menokh (Manoah)
was not rejected, and she received the angel readily in her chamber
(Judges xiii. 2 f.).

Now God made the spirit of conception to breathe
upon the woman
Keyamta, and she brought forth a (5) son, and they called his name
"SAWMA"[i.e. the son who was obtained by fasting; his full name was
"BAR SAWMA,"i.e.; the "son of the fast."]. And they rejoiced [with] a
great joy, neighbours of his family and his relations rejoiced at his
birth.

And when they had brought him (after a praiseworthy
system of
education) to the period when he was capable of receiving instruction,
they handed him over to a worthy teacher, and before him (i.e. under
his direction) they trained him diligently in ecclesiastical learning;
and they betrothed him to a maiden and rejoiced in him. He was held to
be worthy to receive the grade of priest, and he was numbered among the
ranks (?) of the clergy, and he became Keeper in the church of
above-mentioned city. He led a life of strict chastity and humility,
and he devoted himself with great diligence to the acquisition of
spiritual excellences, and he struggled to make himself fit for the
things of the world which is to come. And when he was twenty years of
age the divine fire was kindled in his heart, and it burned up the
brambles (or thorny growth) of sin, and cleansed his chaste soul from
impurity and contamination of every kind. For he preferred more than
any other thing whatsoever the love of his Lord, and, grasping the
plough, he was unwilling to look behind him (Luke ix. 62). He cast away
forthwith the shadow of the world, and renounced straightway the
desirable things thereof. (6) He esteemed dainty meats as things which
had no existence, and he rejected wholly the drinks which make a man
drunk.

Now when his parents perceived this, great pain
overtook them, and
acute sorrow cleaved to them, because their only son was separating
himself from them. They rose up and with broken hearts made
supplication to him, and brought before him promises of things of this
world, saying, "Why, O our precious son, is separation from us beloved
by thee? How is it that our affliction is desired by thee? Why is our
mourning sweet in thy sight? Consider now. To whom will our wealth
revert? Think, who is our heir? Ponder well who will be the master of
the [produce of] our toil? How can it possibly be pleasing to thee for
our seed and name to be blotted out? Why doth the thought of thy heart
suggest that strangers should be our heirs?"And having persuaded him
with tears in this manner, and having stirred up grief in him by their
lamentation and talk similar [to that given above], he hearkened to
them outwardly, and dwelt with them as far as his body was concerned,
but very unwillingly. And during the three years in which he ministered
to his parents according to the body, he never (7) ceased from his
toil, and he contended continually in his laborious career.

And when [his parents] saw that their exhortations
were of no avail,
and that, in comparison with the love of Christ, their words were
accounted as nothing, they left him to perform his desire. Then he
divided all his possessions, that is to say, his apparel and his
clothing generally (or furniture), among the poor, and took the garb of
the monk; and he received the tonsure from the holy and pious father,
Mar Giwargis (George) the Metropolitan. And he began to toil in the
vineyard of his Lord with the hope of the kingdom which is to come, and
the confidence the possession of heavenly happiness, and that he would
receive the whole dinar as his wages. (Matt. xx. 1-16). He set apart a
cell for himself and he shut himself up therein seven years; and after
that [period] he decided to remove himself from the children of men,
and to practice himself in the ascetic life in the mountain, in a place
which was wholly isolated, so that he might rest there [undisturbed] in
his life as a recluse. Then he set out and went a journey of one day
from their [i.e. his parents'] city, and he elected to dwell there. And
he found (8) a certain place where there was a cave, and there was by
the side of it in that mountain a spring of water. And he dwelt there
peacefully and thanked his Lord, which held him to be so worthy that at
length the report of him went forth in that region, and men used to
gather together about him to hear his words, and honour was set apart
for him (i.e. ascribed to him) by every man.

CHAPTER II

THE HISTORY OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, THE CATHOLICUS AND PATRIARCH OF
THE EAST

In the foreknowledge of God everything is known. And
the thoughts of
the children of men, whether they belong to the right hand (i.e. be
good), or whether they belong to the left hand (i.e. be bad), all of
them, even before they are formed in the breast, are revealed unto Him.
He therefore, in accordance with their character, elects and makes
righteous [if they be good], and because of them [if they be bad] He
chastiseth and punisheth. Now unto Moses it was said, "Behold, I have
given thee [as] God to Pharaoh."(Exod. vii. I). And his election maketh
known concerning the good disposition [of Moses] (9) and the hardness
of the heart of Pharaoh. For even before Pharaoh existed, it was known
[to God] that he would be hard: [of heart], and he was rejected. For
unto Jeremiah God said, "Before I had formed thee in the belly I knew
thee, 'and before thou didst go forth from the womb I sanctified thee
and gave thee to be a prophet to the nations"(Jer. i. 5). And Paul
said, "God hath not cast aside His people who from the very beginning
were known to Him"(Rom. xi. I, 2), because assuredly, of [their] good
will and pure thoughts. Now, certain characteristics of election make
themselves visible in the person of him that is elected, and certain
radiances shine forth from him which makes known that he is worthy of
grace. The man who hath an enlightened mind perceiveth these, but the
man who hath not an understanding mind knoweth them not. Since the
person about whom we are going to speak was elected because of his
superior discipline (or, exalted life), it is necessary for us to
describe the manner of his election, and show how of a certainty it
contributed to the perfect will.

There was, in the city of KAWSHANG, of the country
of the East, a
certain righteous and believing man (10), pure and spotless, who served
God continually in His church, and observed His laws strictly and
carefully. [The city of Kawshang, i.e. Kung-Tschang lay between Pekin
and Tangut, and was about fifteen days' journey from the former city.
Chabot would identify it with Ho-tchung-fu in the province of Shan-si.]
His name was BAYNIEL; he was an archdeacon and he had four sons. The
youngest of them [who was born in the year of our Lord 1245] was called
MARKOS (Mark), and he was trained in ecclesiastical learning more than
all his brethren. . . . . . . . .[The text is defective here, or some
words have been omitted.] and they admonished (or exhorted) him
concerning these and much like matters, and it seemed to them that they
might be talking rather to a statue than to a rational man. But even
after suffering affliction in many ways he did not turn back from his
course, and his mind did not resist from its quest. On the contrary he
made straight his aim, and after fifteen days of great labour he
arrived at the place where RABBAN SAWMA was. And he gave the salutation
of peace to RABBAN SAWMA, who rejoiced in him and received him gladly.

And after MARK had rested and was refreshed RABBAN
SAWMA asked him,
saying, "My son, whence comest thou? And how did it happen to thee that
thou hast come to this mountain? (11) In what city do thy kinsfolk
dwell? Who is thy father, and whose son art thou?"

And MARK answered him, saying, "I am the son of
Bayniel the
archdeacon of the city of Kawshang, and I am called 'Mark.' "

And RABBAN SAWMA said unto him, "What is thy reason
for coming to me
with such labour and fatigue?"And MARK said unto him, "I wish to become
a monk (or anchorite). Because I heard the report of thee I dropped
everything and have sought thee; deprive me not of my desire."And
RABBAN SAWMA said unto him, "O our brother, this path is difficult.
Even the old [and experienced] monks endure the hardness thereof with
the greatest difficulty; shall I permit youths and children to Journey
on it?"And having besought him for many reasons to return to his
parents, and MARK having refused to do so, RABBAN SAWMA admitted him
[to his cell] and taught him; and he clothed him in a woollen garment,
and made him to labour in the ascetic life. After three years MARK
received the tonsure, that is to say the garb of the monk, from the
pious Metropolitan MAR NESTORIS (Nestorius) on the first day of the
week, or the Sunday [when the prayer beginning] "Rukha Paraklita"is
said. And he continued to perform many ascetic labours and kept the
fasts which lasted all day until the evening. And [the monks] in that
mountain used to toil in (12) the cultivation of purity and holiness,
and they were comforted by God unto Whom they had committed their
souls.

CHAPTER III

RABBAN SAWMA AND RABBAN MARKOS WISH TO GO TO JERUSALEM

One day they meditated, saying, "It would be
exceedingly
helpful to us if we were to leave this region and set out for the West,
for we could then [visit] the tombs of the holy martyrs and Catholic
Fathers and be blessed [by them]. And if Christ, the Lord of the
Universe, prolonged our lives, and sustained us by His grace, we could
go to Jerusalem, so that we might receive complete pardon for our
offences, and absolution for our sins of foolishness. Now although
RABBAN SAWMA opposed RABBAN MARK, and [tried to] frighten him with the
toil of the journey, and the fatigue of travelling, and the terror of
the ways, and the tribulations that would beset him in a (13) foreign
country, RABBAN MARK burned to set out on the road. His mind seemed to
reveal to him that there were treasures laid up for him in the West,
and he pressed RABBAN SAWMA with his words, and importuned him to
depart. And the two of them having agreed together that neither of them
should be separated from his companion, even if one of them might have
to submit to what was evil for his sake, they rose up and distributed
their furniture, and the objects which they used in everyday life,
among the poor, and they went to that city (i.e. Pekin) so that they
might take companions for the journey [i.e. join a caravan] and provide
themselves with food for the way.

Now when the Christians who were living there became
acquainted with
them, and knew their intention, they gathered together about them so
that they might make them abandon their plan. And they said [unto
them}, "Peradventure ye do not know how very far off that region is to
which ye would go? Or, perhaps ye have not the least idea in your
minds, or have forgotten, how difficult it will be for you to travel
over the roads, and that ye will never reach there? Nay, sit ye down
here, and strive to perform the works whereunto ye have been called.
For it is said, 'The kingdom of heaven is within you'"(Luke xvii. 21).
And RABBAN SAWMA and RABBAN MARK replied, "It is a long time since we
(14) put on the garb of the monastic life, and we have renounced the
world; we consider ourselves to be dead men in respect of it. Toil doth
not terrify us, neither doth fear disturb us. There is, however, one
thing which we ask of you: for the love of Christ pray for us. And ye
shall cast away the word which would produce doubt (or hesitation), and
shall make supplication to God that our desire may be fulfilled."[And
the Christians of that city] said, "Depart in peace."And they kissed
each other, and parted with bitter tears and distressful words, saying,
"Depart in peace. And may our Lord, Whom ye seek, be with you, and may
He allot to you that which is pleasing to Him, and will be of help to
you! Amen."

And RABBAN SAWMA and RABBAN MARK came to the city of
KAWSHANG. And
when the people of the city and the parents of RABBAN MARK heard that
these two monks had come there, they went out to meet them with joy,
and they welcomed them with gladness and delight, and they escorted
them into the church with great honour. And they enquired of them how
they had come to make the journey thither. Now they thought that the
two monks were going to tarry with them, and that RABBAN MARK had done
so in order that he might be near the people of his family (I5). And
when they knew of a certainty that they were going to Jerusalem, and
that they had made their plan to travel to the West, they suffered
greatly and were sorely afflicted.

And the report of the arrival of the two monks
reached the lords of
that city, KONBOGHA (i.e. Sun-worshipper) and IFOGHA (or IBOGHA) (i.e.
Moon-worshipper), the sons-in-law of the King of Kings, KUBLAI KHAN
(Plate XII), and as soon as they heard the report they sent messengers
and had the two monks brought to the Camp. And they received them with
gladness, and the fire of love for them burned in their breasts. And
when the Lords knew that they were "going to flee from us,"they began
to say unto them, "Why are ye leaving this country of ours and going to
the West? For we have taken very great trouble to draw hither monks and
fathers from the West. How can we allow you to go away?"RABBAN SAWMA
said unto them, "We (16) have cast away the world. And as long as we
live in the society of men there will be no peace to us. Therefore it
is right that we should flee because of the love of Christ, Who gave
Himself unto death for our redemption. Whatsoever is in the world we
have cast behind us. Although your love moveth us not to depart, and
your gracious goodness would hold us fast, and your alms are bestowed
upon us lavishly; and although it is grateful to us to sojourn with
you, we remember the Lord's word which saith, 'What shall it profit a
man if he possess the whole world and lose his soul? And what shall a
man give as a substitute for his soul?' (Matt. xvi. 26). We earnestly
desire the separation, but wherever we shall be we shall always
remember, according to our feebleness, both by night and by day, your
kingdom in [our] prayers."

And when the Lords of the city saw that their words
had no effect
upon them, and that they would not yield to their persuasion, they
selected for them gifts, namely, beasts on which to ride, and gold, and
silver, and wearing apparel [and rugs]. Then the two monks said, "We
have no need of any [of these things]. For what can we do with these
possessions? (17) And how can we possibly carry such a weight [as]
this?"And the kings mentioned above replied, "Ye have no knowledge of
the length of this journey, and the expenses which it demands. We,
however, do know, and we advise you not to set out empty [handed]; if
ye do ye will be unable to arrive at the place which ye have decided to
be your destination. Accept then these gifts from us as a loan (or
trust), and if some occasion of necessity should befall you, spend what
ye need from them; if, on the other hand, the necessity does not arise,
and ye arrive safe and sound, distribute them among the monasteries and
habitations of the monks which are there, and the Fathers (i.e.
Bishops), so that we may enjoy association with our Western Fathers.
For it is said, 'Let your superfluity be [a supply] for those who are
in want' "(2 Cor. viii. 13). Then the two monks, seeing that the kings
were giving with a sincere heart, accepted what they gave to them. And
they bade farewell to them sorrowfully, and they shed tears wherewith
joy was mingled.

And they came from thence to the city of TANGOTH
[i.e. TANGKUT, or
TANGAT, or THANGCHU, a country in Central Asia; its capital was
HIATCHEU, or NING-HIA-FU]. When the people of that city heard (18) that
RABBAN SAWMA and RABBAN MARK had come there in order to go to
Jerusalem, they went forth eagerly to meet them, that is to say, old
men and women, young men and youths, and boys and young children, for
the people of TANGOTH were ardent believers, and their minds were pure.
And they loaded the two monks with gifts of every kind, and they
received their blessings, and a crowd escorted them on their way, and
shed tears, saying, "The Lord Who hath elected you to the honour of His
service shall Himself be with you. Amen."

And from there they went to the country of LOTON [?
KHOTAN, or
HO-THIAN, or YUTHIAN, a city between TANGOTH and KASHGAR], a toilsome
and fatiguing journey of two months; the region was a bare and barren
desert and it was without inhabitants, because its waters were bitter,
and no crops are sown there. And on the whole journey there were only
eight days when, with the greatest difficulty, was sweet water found
which the travellers could carry with them.6
And in the days when they arrived at LOTON it happened that a war was
raging between the King of Kings (19) KUBLAI KHAN and King OKO ['O-'ho,
Commander-in-chief of the army of Mien?]. And OKO had fled from him and
had entered [this] country, and destroyed thousands of men therein. The
caravan roads and ways had been cut, and grain (?) was scarce and could
not be found; and many died of hunger and perished through want.

And after six months the two monks went forth from
that place and
came to the country of KASHKAR [or KASHGAR, a city on the frontiers of
CHINA and TURKESTAN]. And they saw that the city was empty of its
inhabitants, because it had been already plundered by the enemy. And
because the aim of the monks was right, and they pleased God with all
their hearts, He delivered them from every affliction, and no suffering
attacked them, and He saved them from obstructions by highway robbers
and thieves.

And they came to the place where King KAIDO [a
nephew of KUBLAI
KHAN] was encamped by the Teleos (i.e. TALAS). And they went into his
presence, and prayed that his life would be preserved, and they blessed
his kingdom, and they asked him for a written order so that no man in
his country might do them harm. And with the greatest difficulty (20)
and in a state of exhaustion whereto fear was added, they arrived at
KHORASAN, [a province of north-eastern Persia, which lay between
Persian 'Irak and Afghanistan]. Having lost the greater part of what
they had on the road, they went to the monastery of Saint MAR SEHYON,
which was in the neighbourhood of the city of TUS [the capital of
KHORASAN], and they were blessed by the bishop who lived therein and by
the monks. And they thought (i.e. felt) that they had been born into
the world anew, and they gave thanks unto God in Whom they had trusted;
they had placed their hope in Him, and had been delivered, for He is
the sustainer and helper of every one who maketh entreaty unto Him.

And having enjoyed the conversation of those
brethren they set out
to go to ADHORBIJAN [a frontier province of Persia, on the north-west],
so that they might travel from there to BAGHDAD, to MAR DENHA, the
Catholicus [he succeeded MAKIKA A.GR. I577=A.D. 1266, according to Bar
Hebraeus, Chron. Eccles., sect. ii, p. 439]. Now; it happened that Mar
Catholicus had come to MARAGHAH [a town of ADHORBIJAN the capital of
HULAGU KHAN], and they met him there. And at the sight of him their joy
grew great, and their gladness was increased, and their minds were made
to be at peace, and their anxious thoughts were set at rest. And they
fell down on the ground before him, and they wept as they did homage to
him (21) and they behaved as if they saw our Lord JESUS CHRIST in the
person of MAR DENHA, the Catholicus. May his memory be for blessing!
And they said unto him, "The mercies of God [shown to us] are many, and
His grace is poured out abundantly upon us since we have seen the
glorious and spiritual face of our General Father."And when he asked
them, "Whence [come] ye?"they replied, "From the countries of the East,
from KHAN BALIK, the city of the King of Kings [KUBLAI] KHAN. We have
come to be blessed by you, and by the Fathers (i.e. Bishops), and the
monks, and the holy men of this quarter of the world. And if a road
[openeth] to us, and God hath mercy upon us, we shall go to JERUSALEM.

And when the Catholicus saw their tears, and that
they were moved
with gladness at their meeting with him, his mercy showed itself unto
them, and he comforted them and said unto them, Assuredly, O my sons,
the Angel of Providence shall protect you on this difficult journey,
and he shall be a guide unto you until the completion of your quest.
Let not your toil make you sad, for it is said in the Prophet (22)
'Those who sow in tears, shall reap in joy' (Ps. cxxvi. 5). That for
which ye hope ye shall attain, and in return for the sufferings and
tribulations which ye will have to bear, ye shall receive a perfect
recompense and wages twofold in this world, and never-failing good
things and never-ending delights in the world which is to come."And
they did homage to him, and gave thanks to him.

And having enjoyed intercourse with him for a few
days they brought
forward [the following] request: "If we have found mercy (i.e. favour)
in the eyes of Mar our Father, let him permit us to go to BAGHDAD, in
order that we may receive a blessing from the holy sepulchres (or
relics?) of MAR MARI [the disciple of Saint ADDAI, Bar Hebraeus, Chron.
Eccles., sect. ii, p. 15], the Apostle, the teacher of the East, and
those of the Fathers that are there. And from there we would go to the
monasteries that are in the countries of BETH GARMAI and in NISIBIS
that we may be blessed there also, and demand assistance."

And when the Catholicus saw the beauty of their
object, and the
innocence of their minds, and the honesty of their thoughts, he said
unto them, "Go ye, my sons, and may Christ, the Lord of the Universe,
grant unto you your petition (23) from His rich and overflowing
treasury, and may He grant you a full measure of His grace, and may His
compassion accompany you whithersoever ye go. And he wrote for them a
pethikha (i.e. a letter of introduction) to these countries so that
they might be honourably entreated whithersoever they went; and he sent
with them a man to show them the way, and to act as guide along the
roads.

And they arrived in Baghdad, and thence they went to
the Great
Church of KOKE [at Ctesiphon wherein every Catholicus was consecrated].
And they went to the monastery of MAR MARI, the Apostle, and received a
blessing from the sepulchers (or relics?) of that country. And from
there they turned back and came to the country of BETH GARMAI, and they
received blessings from the shrine (or tomb) of MAR EZEKIEL [the
prophet, near Dakok], which was full of helps and healings. And from
there they went to ARBIL, and thence to MAWSIL (i.e. Mosul on the
Tigris). And they went SHIGAR (SINJAR), and NISIBIS, and MERDA
(MARDIN); and were blessed by the shrine [containing] the bones of MAR
AWGIN, the second CHRIST. And thence they went to GAZARTA of BETH
ZABHDAI, and they were blessed by all the shrines and monasteries, and
the religious houses, and monks, and the Fathers (i.e. Bishops) in
their dioceses. And they paid the vows which they had laid upon
themselves, and they spread (24) tables of food [wherefrom all might
eat], and they gave alms and oblations wherever they went. And they
turned back and came to the holy monastery of MAR MICHAEL of TAR'IL.
And they bought a cell, and both of them were received by the monks who
were there. And the thought which made them toil through the journey
had rest, although they had not arrived at the end of [their]
expectation.

Now when MAR DENHA or DENKHA, the Catholicus, heard
of their manner
of life, he sent and asked them to go to him; and they went forthwith
and gave him the customary salutation. And he said unto them, "We have
heard that ye have been received into a monastery. This however, doth
not please us. For whilst the two of you sojourn in the monastery ye
will be able to make perfect your own peace (or rest), and that is all
that ye will do, but if ye abide with us ye will bring benefit and
peace (or rest) to the whole community. Therefore stay ye with us, and
support the Door of the Kingdom [compare Sublime Porte] in whatever
manner cometh to your hands."And they said unto him, "Whatsoever thou
commandest (25), O our Father, we will do." And the Catholicus said
unto them, "Ye shall go to King ABGHA [or ABAGHA KHAN, or ABAKA KHAN,
the son and successor of HULAGU KHAN, and great grandson of Chingiz
Khan, who ascended the throne of Persia as the second Mongol Khan in
1265], and obtain for us PUKDANE (i.e. written orders, or letters
patent confirming his appointment as Catholicus)."And the two monks
said unto him, "Thus shall it be, but let Mar our Father send with us a
man who shall take the Pukdana [from the king] and give it to him (i.e.
the Catholicus), and we will go on from there to JERUSALEM."And the
Catholicus granted them this [request], and gave them blessings on
their journey.

And when the two monks went to the Blessed Camp, the
Amirs brought
them in before the King, and he asked them about the object of their
coming, and what their native country was; and they made a reply to him
which revealed unto him their object. And ABHGHA KHAN commanded the
nobles of his kingdom to fulfil their petition, and to give them the
written orders (Pukdane)which they had asked for. And the two monks
sent the written order which Mar Catholicus had demanded to him by the
hands of his messenger, and they and their companions set out for
JERUSALEM.

And when they arrived at the city of Animto [i.e.
ANI, the ancient
capital of Christian ARMENIA, situated on an affluent of the river
Araxes], and saw (26) the monasteries and the churches therein, they
marvelled at the great extent of the buildings and at their
magnificence. And thence they went towards BETH GURGAYE (i.e. the
country of Georgia), so that they might travel by a clear (or safe?)
road, but when they arrived there they heard from the inhabitants of
the country that the road was cut because of the murders and robberies
which had taken place along it.

CHAPTER IV

RABBAN MARK IS ORDAINED METROPOLITAN, AND IS CALLED MAR
YAHBH-ALLAHA, AND RABBAN SAWMA BECOMES VISITOR-GENERAL

And the two monks turned back and came to Mar
Catholicus, who
rejoiced [at the sight of] them, and said unto them, "This is not the
time for a journey to JERUSALEM. The roads are a disturbed state, and
the ways are cut. Now behold, ye have received blessings from all the
Houses of God, and the shrines (or relics?) which are in them (27), and
it is my opinion that when a man visits them with a pure heart, the
service thus paid to them is in no way less than that of a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem. I am now going to counsel you with a council which is
appropriate, and it is meet that ye should hearken unto it. I have
decided to appoint MARK Metropolitan, and to bestow upon him the
apostolic gift. As for thee RABBAN SAWMA, I am going to make thee
Visitor-General, and I am going to send the two of you, each back to
his own country."And those monks said unto him, "The word of Mar our
Father is from the command of Christ, and he who does not carry it out
committeth transgression of the command; nevertheless we will reveal
our thought, and show forth what is hidden in our heart.

"We have not come from that country (i.e. China) in
order to turn
back and go again thither, and we do not intend to endure a repetition
of the hardship which we have already suffered. For the man who is
tripped up twice by the [same] stone (28) is a fool. And moreover, we
declare that we are unworthy of this gift, and for defective creatures
[like ourselves], a responsibility of this kind is too difficult. What
we are seeking after is this: to dwell in a monastery and to serve
Christ until we die."Then Catholicus said unto them, "This gift is
suitable for you, and the responsibility befits your modesty."And when
the two monks saw that their excuse was unavailing, they said, "The
will of our Father be done."And the Catholicus said, "Hitherto no man
hath called RABBAN MARK 'MAR MARK,' but I wish to call him by this
name. And, moreover, I have thought out a plan [for doing so]. We will
write down [on slips of paper a number of] names, and lay them upon the
altar. And whichever name shall go forth [from among them] with some
clearly recognizable indication, that we will call MARK."7 And he did this,
and the name
of YAHBH-ALLAHA came forth, and the Catholicus said, "This is from the
blessed Lord, blessed be He!"And they were each worthy [of honour]. And
RABBAN MARK received the rank of Metropolitan of the See of KATI [i.e.
Kathay, or Northern China], and ONG [i.e. WANG, or HUANG], from MAR
DENHA, the Catholicus, when he was thirty-five years of age [in the
year 1280] (29). And RABBAN SAWMA also received a blessing from him,
and was named "Visitor-General."And they both took letters of
introduction; each man's letter being drawn up according to the
requirements of his service.

And after a few days a report came to the effect
that the road by
which they had travelled there was wholly cut off, and that it was
impossible for any man to use it, for the hearts of the kings of the
two frontiers were changed [i.e. were hostile to each other and they
were fighting], namely, the king on the one side of the [river] GIHON
(i.e. the Oxus), and the king of the other side. And therefore the
luminaries (i.e. RABBAN SAWMA and MARK the Metropolitan) returned to
the monastery of MAR MICHAEL of TAR'IL, and they sat down in their cell
for two years, more or less.

And one night when MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA was sleeping he
saw a dream, and
it seemed to him that he went into a great church, and that there were
in the church images of the saints, and that in the midst of them there
was the CROSS (30). And he stretched out his right arm in order to
receive a blessing from it, and as he stretched forward his arm, the
Cross receded from him, and it ascended until it came to the top
(roof?) of the temple, where he grasped it and kissed it, and then he
went out of the church. And he saw lofty trees that were laden with
different kinds of hard fruits, and various soft fruits, and he began
to pluck and to eat them, and he gave [some of them] to the crowd of
people who were gathered together, and fed them therewith. And when he
woke up he showed the dream to RABBAN SAWMA, saying, "I have seen a
dream and it troubleth me."And RABBAN SAWMA said unto him, "Relate thy
dream to me."And when he had related it to him RABBAN SAWMA interpreted
it, saying, "That thy arm extended itself after thou hadst stretched it
out to be blessed by the CROSS and by the images of the saints, showeth
that thou wilt attain to the great stature [i.e. the highest rank] of
the Fathers (or Bishops). And that thou didst eat of the fruit of the
trees, and didst give of them to the people to eat, showeth that thou
wilt thyself enjoy the heavenly gift which resteth upon thee, and that
thou wilt also make many people enjoy that same gift."

And again, on another night, MAR YAHBH ALLAHA saw
another (31)
vision. It seemed him as if he were sitting upon a high throne and that
many people were gathered together round about him, and he was teaching
[them] And as he was speaking his tongue became long and longer until
the greater part of it went forth from his mouth; and then it became
divided into three portions, and there appeared on the tip of each
portion something which was like unto fire. And the people who were
there marvelled and glorified God. And when he awoke he again related
his dream to RABBAN SAWMA, who said unto him, "This is no dream, for it
is a revelation and it resembleth a revelation; and it differeth in no
way from [the revelation of] the Spirit which in the form of tongues of
fire rested upon the Apostles (Acts ii. 3). And assuredly the Holy
Spirit resteth upon thee, and the patriarchal throne shall be given
into thy hands, so that thou mayest complete His service, and minister
to its operation" (32).

CHAPTER V

YAHBH-ALLAHA IS ELECTED PATRIARCH

Now whilst these things were taking place,
MAR DENHA, the
Catholicus, was still alive, but he had been suffering from sickness
for a long time in BAGHDAD. And many of the monks and Fathers (i.e.
Bishops) had been seeing visions which resembled those [described
above]. And after a few days there arose in MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA the
thought that he would go to the Catholicus in BAGHDAD so that he might
receive from him a blessing, and the birona (i.e. pontifical cloak
Bippiov) and pastoral staff that they might go with him to his country.
And when he arrived in the neighbourhood of BAGHDAD, a certain man who
was an acquaintance of his met him, and said unto him, "The Catholicus
is dead, but peradventure if thou wilt urge on thy caravan thy wilt
arrive before he is buried."Then, with great anguish and a sorrowful
heart, Mar Yahbh-Allaha set out and pressed on quickly until he came to
the door of the church; and when he had gone inside he saw some groups
of people weeping (33) and some groups praying. And he went up to the
bier, and cast aside his turban, and rent his garments, and wept so
bitterly and with such anguish that at length he fell down upon the
ground like a dead man. After a time the people lifted him up, and put
his turban on him, and spake words of consolation to him. And when the
prayers for the dead were ended [the Catholicus] was buried [on
February 24, 1281]--may his memory be for blessing! And the Fathers
returned to the Cell [which was actually a palace] of the Catholicus.

And on the following day the Fathers gathered
together to elect a
person suitable to sit on the [patriarchal] Throne. There were present
the following: first and foremost there was MARAN-'AMMEH, Metropolitan
of ELAM. Another was [the Metropolitan of] TANGOTH [in China]; another
was [the Metropolitan of] TIRAHAN near Samarra in 'Irak; and another
was [the Metropolitan of] TURE [i.e. TUR 'ABHDIN]. And with these were
the nobles, and governors, and scribes, and lawyers, and physicians of
BAGHDAD. And one said, "this man shall be Patriarch,"and another said,
"that man shall be Patriarch,"until at length they all agreed that MAR
YAHBH-ALLAHA should be the head and governor of the Throne of SELEUCIA
and CTESIPHON (34). The reason for his election was this: The kings who
held the steering poles of the government of the whole world were
MUGLAYE (Mongols), and there was no man except MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA who was
acquainted with their manners and customs, and their policy of
government, and their language. And when [the nobles of Baghdad] said
these things to him he made excuses and demurred to their statements,
saying, "I am deficient in education and in ecclesiastical doctrine,
and the member of my tongue halteth. How can I possibly become your
Patriarch? And moreover, I am wholly ignorant of your language, Syriac,
which it is absolutely necessary for the Patriarch to know."And having
pressed upon him their quest, he agreed to their opinion and accepted
[the office]. And all the aged men, and priests, and nobles, and
scribes, and also the physicians, gave their support to him.

And MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA rose up and came to the holy
monastery of MAR
MICHAEL of TAR'IL, where Rabban Sawma was. Now the monks had already
heard of the death of the holy Father, Mar Denha, and when MAR
YAHBH-ALLAHA arrived, they received him with gladness, and comforted
him; and they [told] him that they approved of his being elected
Catholicus. It was a divine movement, and an act (35) which proceeded
from God, and which all creation was compelled to carry out. And when
he talked to RABBAN SAWMA, the Rabban said unto him, "This is a divine
matter, from which thou canst not possibly ask for release; therefore
let us go forthwith to King ABHGHA (or ABAGA), and if he consents
thereto we shall receive the conclusion."

And they rose up and set out for ADHORBIJAN together
with the aged
and venerable men, and Fathers (i.e. Bishops), and monks who
accompanied them, for at that time the kings used to pass the summer in
that place. And they arrived at the place where the king was at BLACK
MOUNTAIN, which is known in Persian as SIA KUH, and the Amirs
introduced them, and put forward their request. And the monks said unto
the king, "May the king live for ever! The Catholicus is dead, and all
the Christians wish and have agreed together that this Metropolitan who
hath come from the countries of the East to go to Jerusalem should
stand in his place. What doth the king command?"And Abhgha replied,
"This purity (or sincerity) of thoughts and conscience (36) is worthy
of admiration. And God is with those who seek Him and do His will. This
man and his companion have come from the East to go to JERUSALEM; this
hath happened to them through the wish of God. We also will minister to
the Divine Will and the entreaty of the Christians; he shall stand for
them as their head and shall sit upon the Throne."

And he took Mar Yahbh-Allaha by the hand and said
unto him, " Be
strong and rule, and may God be with thee and support thee."And he
covered his head with a cloak, for a cloak was lying on his shoulders,
and he gave him his own chair of state (sandali) which was a small
throne. And he gave him also a parasol (shather), which is called in
Mongolian sukor, and this is raised up above the heads of kings and
queens, and their children, and it is sufficient to keep away from them
the strength of the sun and rain; but on most occasions parasols are
spread over them to do them honour. And the king gave him also a PAIZA
of gold, which is the sign (or symbol) of these kings, and the
customary Pukdane, that is to say, written commands, which authorized
him to have dominion over every one (37), and the great seal which had
formerly belonged to the Catholicus, his predecessor. And he allotted
to him the large sum of money which was necessary to pay the expenses
of the laying on of hands.

Then Rabban Sawma and MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA rose up and
came to Baghdad.
And they went to the Great Church of KOKE, and MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA
received the Xeipotovia, that is to say, the laying on of hands, to
hold the steering poles of the government of the Oriental Church. And
he sat on the throne of SELEUCIA and CTESIPHON through the offices of
the holy Father, MARAN 'AMMEH, Metropolitan of ELAM, the disposer and
keeper of the Apostolic Throne, and through the Fathers who were
present there, and who were:-

MAR ISHO ZEKHA, Metropolitan of SUBHA (NISIBIS) and
of ARMENIA.

MAR MOSES, Metropolitan of ARBIL.

156 THE MONKS OF KUBLAI KHAN

MAR GABRIEL, Metropolitan of MOSUL and NINEVAH.

MAR ELIJAH, Metropolitan of DAKUK and BETH GARMAI.

MAR ABRAHAM, Metropolitan of TRIPOLIS and JERUSALEM.

MAR JACOB, Metropolitan of SAMARKAND.

MAR JOHN (38) Metropolitan of ADHORBIJAN.

And the other Bishops, twenty-four in number, among
whom were: -

[MAR JOSEPH, Bishop of SALAMIS.

MAR ABRAHAM, Bishop of USHNUK.

MAR JOHN, Bishop of SHUSHTAR.]

[These three names are added from Bedjan's note on
p. 38 of this
text.]

This laying on of hands took place in the month of
the second
Teshri, on the first Sunday of the "Consecration of the Church,"in the
year one thousand five hundred and ninety-three of the Greeks [i.e. in
November, I28I], in the seven and thirtieth year of his age.

Now it happened that in the winter of that year King
ABHGHA came
down to BAGHDAD, and MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, went to him on
the Sabbath which came before the Lord's Fast (i.e. Lent). And he
explained to him the affairs of the Christians [i.e. their actual
condition], and found mercy (i.e. sympathy) in his sight. And the king
bestowed upon him large gifts, and gave him a written authority
(pukdana) to levy a tax each year on behalf of the churches, and
monasteries, and monks, and priests, and deacons, thirty thousand
dinars (nearly £15,000) or one hundred and eighty thousand white
zuze. [The silver zuza=about 20d. of our money?]. And the Catholicus
sent out [men] to exact a gift from the various countries equivalent to
this amount. (39) Now when King Abhgha departed this temporary life the
gift was withheld.

CHAPTER VI

THE FALSE ACCUSATIONS WHICH MAR YAHBH SUFFERED IN THE DAYS OF AHMAD
THE KING

About the events which immediately followed we will
not prolong our
discourse. [In short] after ABHGHA there rose up as king, his brother,
AHMAD [who is also known as NEKUDAR, or TAKUDAR, who was baptized and
was called NIKALEOS, or NICHOLAS], the son of HULAGU. He lacked
education and knowledge, and he persecuted the Christians greatly
because of his association with the HAGARAYE [i.e. the descendants of
HAGAR, the Muhammadans], towards whose religion he leaned, and because
of two of the envious old men (i.e. bishops}, who found the opportunity
to fulfil their desire. They went into the king's presence through the
help of certain erring men, one of whom was called (40) SHAMS AD-DIN,
the lord of the DIWAN [the son of BEHAI AD-DIN MUHAMMAD] that is to
say, chief of the scribes of the dumasion ( = the State or
Treasury), and the other was the Shakh 'ABD AR-RAHMAN. And they
calumniated MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA the Catholicus, and RABBAN SAWMA, and made
accusations against them [to the king], saying, "The hearts of these
men are with ARGHON, the son of ABHGHA, and they have written
treasonable things against thee, O King, to the King of Kings KUBLAI
KHAN. And the Amir if SHAMOT is a participator in the treason."The
latter had been a monk and an ascetic, and was then the Eparch of the
city of MOSUL and its district.

Now these two men used Ahmad as a tool in fulfilling
their desire
through the two old men who have already been mentioned, that is to say
Isho'-Sabhran, Metropolitan of TANGOTH, and SIMON, Bishop of ARNI [or
Arna, in the diocese of 'Akra]. These two bishops had plotted together
and agreed that the one of them should become the Catholicus, and the
other Metropolitan and Visitor-General. And this plan having, through
the counsel of the Adversary, entered (41) their minds they contrived
this scheme of theirs as we have described.

Now the king who lacked understanding, inasmuch as
he had cast God
aside, did not ponder in his mind, saying, "These men can have no
benefit in this matter, why should they bring themselves to make false
accusations?" but he believed the words of the crafty ones. And by his
command MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, and RABBAN SAWMA and the Amir
SHAMOT were brought up into the Great House. After the written
authorisations (Pukdane) which he had given to them, he took away the
house of Mar Catholicus, and the Paiza [some words omitted?]. And when
Mar Yahbh-Allaha and Rabban Sawma had gone into the Hall of Judgment,
they did not know what was required of them, and they remained there
stupefied, saying, "What have we done?"And the messenger who had
brought them into the Hall of Judgment said unto them, "Your holy men,
and the scribes, and the men of your Communion have made accusations
against you before the king."

And the great Amirs, that is to say the judges said
unto the
Catholicus, "What evil thing hast thou seen in the king that thou
shouldst lie concerning him, and shouldst send calumnies about him to
the King of Kings, KUBLAI KHAN saying, 'This man hath abandoned the way
of his (42) fathers and hath become a Muhammadan. And the Catholicus
replied, "I do not understand."And the judges said unto him, "Thy
scribes have declared these things against thee."And the judges brought
the scribes, and when each one of them had been questioned by himself,
every one of them stated that which he knew. And Mar Catholicus said,
"O Amirs, why do ye weary yourselves? Fetch back that messenger, with
whom are the letters, and examine them. If this accusation which hath
been made against me is [proved] true, I will die ungrudgingly an in my
own blood. But if it be [proved] to a false, it rests with you to judge
and to take vengeance [on my behalf]."

And the Amirs accepted this proposal, and they made
it known to the
king, and the king sent after the messenger, and took back from him all
the letters in the neighbourhood of Khorasan. And when the letters had
been opened and read, there was found in them nothing which any way
resembled the accusations. But the judges said nothing about this to
[the accusers of the Catholicus], and therefore we know that they had
taken the letters as a pretext.

And the Catholicus remained in prison for forty
days, more (43) or
less, in great anxiety, and bitter suffering and anguish all day long,
until God in His mercy visited him, and he as saved from death. Now
King Ahmad as exceedingly wroth with him, and as the thirsty man
longeth for cool waters, even so did the king thirst to shed his blood.
And would have done so had it not been for the Angel of Providence who
governs this holy throne, and who wrought upon the mother of the king
[KUTUI KHATUN], and upon the Amirs, and prevented him from carrying
into effect the thought which he had devised. And further, through the
word of those whom we have mentioned, the Catholicus found mercy in the
sight of the king, and he gave him [back] the Letter of Authority
(Pukdana) and the Paiza, and he made his heart happy and sent him back.

Then Mar Yahbh-Allaha said farewell to the king and
went to the city
of URMI. And he saw a vision (or dream) in the church of MART MARYAM,
and he knew that he would never see the king again. And after some days
he arrived in the city of MARAGHAH, he and the bishops who had made
accusations against him. And King AHMAD and his troops went to KHORASAN
in order to seize King ARGHON, the son of King ABHGHA. And he had made
a pact with the two persons who have been mentioned above, and with the
chiefs of the Arabs (44), that when he had seized that prince (ARGHON)
he should slay the rest of the royal children, and that he should
become Khalifah in Baghdad, and put an end to the life of the
Catholicus also. But his thought returned empty, and his plan had no
result, for the Lord setteth aside the thoughts of the children of men,
and establisheth His design. He dismisseth kings and maketh kings to
pass away, but His kingdom standeth for ever. And the armies of AHMAD
were scattered--now, the greater number of the troops took the side of
ARGHON and Ahmad was captured and killed [in the year 1284].

One night, before he had heard of what had happened
to AHMAD the
king, MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA had a dream. And it seemed to him that a young
man of handsome appearance came to him carrying a dish, which was
covered over with a napkin, in his hands, and he said unto the
Catholicus, "Stand up, and eat what is laid on the dish."And when he
drew back the cloth he found a boiled head [of a man] in the dish, and
he ate the whole head leaving nothing except he bones of the jaw. And
the young man said unto him, "Dost thou know (45) what thou hast
eaten?"And the Catholicus said unto him, "No."And the young man said
unto him, "This was the head of King AHMAD"; and the Catholicus awoke
straightway and was frightened. And a few days later the report of the
murder of the king, which hath already been mentioned, arrived, and the
news that King ARGHON was reigning. And the joy of the Catholicus was
great, not because of the death of Ahmad, but because ARGHON had become
king.

And there and then the Catholicus, and the old men
and the monks
went to offer their congratulations to King ARGHON, and to pay the
homage which the Christians were in duty bound to pay to their kings
according to the apostolic commandment, "Let every soul be in
subjection to the supreme powers who are in authority, for there is no
authority existing which is not from God"(Rom. xiii. I). And having
seen King ARGHON and congratulated him, the Catholicus prayed for the
permanence of his kingdom. And Arghon paid him very great honour, and
magnified his grade when he heard what had happened to him through the
king, his predecessor. And when he knew how the two holy bishops, who
we have mentioned above, had served the Catholicus he commanded them to
be destroyed. Then MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA (46), the Catholicus, said unto
him, "O King, live for ever! We Christians have laws, and everyone who
doth not fulfil them is called a transgressor of the law. Our law doth
not demand the slaying of a man, but only the condemnation of [his]
guilt; and behold, there are many kinds of punishment which those who
discipline offenders can apply to him. By our law the sentence of death
cannot be passed on these reverend men, but only the sentence of
complete dismiss from that grade with the ministration which they have
been entrusted."And this [advice] was pleasing in the eyes of the king,
and he sent away the Catholicus in great honour, and he returned to his
cell in great gladness. And when the venerable Fathers had gathered
together to the Catholicus to salute him and to comfort him, a
discussion (or enquiry) took place concerning the action of the old men
who have already been mentioned. And after much debating, and after
those old men had confessed their offence, they came to a decision and
excommunicated both the bishops, and they were expelled from every
ecclesiastical office [which they held].

CHAPTER VII

(47) ON THE DEPARTURE OF RABBAN SAWMA TO THE COUNTRY OF THE ROMANS
IN THE NAME OF KING ARGHON AND OF THE CATHOLICUS MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

Now MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, increased in
power, and his
honour before the King and Queens grew greater daily. He pulled down
the church of MAR SHALITA which was in MARAGHAH, and he rebuilt it at
very great expense. And instead of using [the old] beams [and making a
single roof] he made [the new church] with two naves (haikili);and by
the side of it he built a cell in which to live. For his affection for
the house of King ARGHON was very warm, because ARGHON loved the
Christians with his whole heart. And ARGHON intended to go into the
countries of Palestine and Syria and to subjugate them and take
possession of them, but he said to himself, "If the Western Kings, who
are Christians, will not help me I shall not be able to fulfil my
desire." Thereupon he asked the Catholicus to give him a wise man (48),
"one who is suitable and is capable of undertaking an embassy, that we
may send him to those kings."And when the Catholicus saw that there was
no man who knew the language except Rabban Sawma, and knowing that he
was fully capable of this, he commanded him to go [on the embassy].

THE JOURNEY OF RABBAN SAWMA; TO THE COUNTRY OF THE ROMANS IN THE
NAME OF KING ARGHON AND OF THE CATHOLICUS MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

Then RABBAN SAWMA said, "I desire this embassy
greatly, and I long
to go."Then straightway King ARGHON wrote for him
"Authorities"(pukdane) to the king of the Greeks, and the king of the
PEROGAYE (Franks?) that is to say Romans, and Yarlike [i.e. the
"Ordinances"of the Mongolian kings], and letters, and gave him gifts
for each of the kings [addressed by him]. And to RABBAN SAWMA he gave
two thousand mathkale ( £1,000?) of gold, and thirty good riding
animals, and a Paiza (see above, pp. 19, 20). And RABBAN SAWMA came to
the cell of the Catholicus to obtain letter from MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, and
to say farewell to him. The Catholicus gave his permission to depart
(49), but when the time for his departure arrived, it did not please
the Catholicus to permit him to go. For he said [unto Rabban Sawma],
"How can this possibly take place? Thou hast been the governor of my
cell, and thou knowest that through thy departure my affairs will fall
into a state of utter confusion."And having said such words as these
they said farewell to each other, weeping as they did so. And the
Catholicus sent with him letters, and gifts which were suitable for
presentation to Mar Papa (the Pope), and gifts [i.e. offerings]
according to his ability.

RABBAN SAWMA IN BYZANTIUM

And RABBAN SAWMA set out on his journey, and there
went with him a
number of excellent men from among the priests and deacons of the Cell
of the Catholicus. And he arrived at BETH RHOMAYE [i.e. the territory
of the Romans] on the borders of the Sea of Meka [the Black Sea?], he
saw the church that was there, and [then] went down [i.e. embarked] in
a ship and his companions were with him. Now there were more than three
hundred souls in the ship, and each day he consoled them with [his]
discourse on the Faith. Now the greater number of those who dwelt in
the ship were Romans (i.e. Byzantine Greeks), and because of the savour
of his speech they paid him honour in no small degree.

And after [some] days he arrived at the great city
of CONSTANTINOPLE
(50), and before they went into it he sent two young men to the Royal
gate (Sublime Porte) to make known there that an ambassador of King
Arghon had come. Then the king commanded certain people to go forth to
meet them, and to bring them in with pomp and honour. And when RABBAN
SAWMA went into the city, the king allotted to him a house, that is to
say, a mansion in which to dwell. And after RABBAN SAWMA had rested
himself, he went to visit the king Æ [Andronicus II] and after he
had saluted him, the king asked him, "How art thou after the workings
of the sea and the fatigue of the road?"And RABBAN SAWMA replied, "With
the sight of the Christian king fatigue hath vanished and exhaustion
hath departed, for I was exceedingly anxious to see your kingdom, the
which may our Lord establish!"

And after they had enjoyed food and drink RABBAN
SAWMA asked the
king to be allowed to see the churches and the shrines [or tombs] of
the Fathers [i.e. Patriarchs], and the relics of the saints that were
therein. And the king handed RABBAN SAWMA over to the nobles of his
kingdom and (51) they showed him everything that was there.

First of all he went unto the great church of ,
[i.e. the Church of
Divine Wisdom], which has three hundred and sixty doors [i.e. pillars]
all made of marble. As for the dome of the altar it is impossible for a
man to describe it [adequately] to one who hath not seen it, and to say
how high and how spacious it is. There is in this church a picture of
the holy MARY which LUKE, the Evangelist, painted. He saw there also
the hand of MAR JOHN the Baptist, and portions [of the bodies of]
LAZARUS, and MARY MAGDALENE, and that stone which was laid on the grave
of our Lord, when Joseph the brought Him down from the Cross. Now MARY
wept on that stone, and the place hereon her tears fell is wet even at
the present time; and however often this moisture is wiped away the
place becometh wet again. And he saw also the stone bowl in which our
Lord changed the water into wine (52) at KATNE (Cana) of Galilee; and
the funerary coffer of one of the holy women which is exposed to public
view every year, and every sick person who is laid under it is made
whole; and the coffer of MAR JOHN OF THE MOUTH OF GOLD (Chrysostom).
And he saw also the stone on which SIMON PETER was sitting when the
cock crew; and the tomb of King CONSTANTINE, the Conqueror, which was
made of red stone (porphyry?); and also the tomb of JUSTINIAN, which
was [built of] green stone; and also the BETH KAWMA (resting place) of
the Three Hundred and Eighteen [orthodox] Bishops who were all laid in
one great church; and their bodies have not suffered corruption because
they had confirmed the [True] Faith. And he saw also many shrines of
the holy Fathers, and many amulets of a magical character (talismata)
and image[s] in bodily form made of bronze and stone (Eikons?).

And when RABBAN SAWMA went [back] to King Æ he
said, “May the
king live for ever! I give thanks unto our Lord that I have been held
worthy to see these things. And now, if the king will permit me, I will
go and fulfil the command (53) of King ARGHON, for the command to me
was to enter the territory of the Progaye [i.e. Franks]." Then
the king entreated him with great kindness, and gave him gifts of gold
and silver.

RABBAN SAWMA IN ITALY AND IN GREAT ROME

And he departed from Constantinople and went down to
the sea. And he
saw on the sea-shore a monastery of the Romans, and there were laid up
in its treasure-house two funerary coffers of silver; in the one was
the head of MAR JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, and in the other that of MAR PAPA who
baptized CONSTANTINE. And he went down to the sea [i.e. embarked on a
ship] and came to the middle thereof, where he saw a mountain from
which smoke ascended all the day long and in the night time fire showed
itself on it. And no man is able to approach the neighbourhood of it
because of the stench of sulphur [proceeding therefrom]. Some people
say that there is a great serpent there. This sea is called the "Sea of
Italy."Now it is a terrible sea, and very many thousands of (54) people
have perished therein. And after two months of toil, and weariness, and
exhaustion, RABBAN SAWMA arrived at the sea-shore, and he landed at the
name of which was NAPOLI (Naples); the name of its king was IRID
SHARDALO [ =IL RE SHARL DU or, the King Charles II?]. And he went to
the king and showed him the reason why they had come; and the king
welcomed him and paid him honour. Now it happened that there was war
between him and another king, whose name was IRID ARKON [=the King of
Aragon, JAMES II?]. And the troops of the one had come in many ships,
and the troops of the other were ready, and they began to fight each
other, and the King of ARAGON (?) conquered King CHARLES II, and slew
twelve thousand his men, and sunk their ships in the sea. [According to
Chabot this naval engagement took place in the Bay of Sorrento on St.
John's Day, June 24, 1287, and the great eruption of Mount Etna on June
I8]. Meanwhile RABBAN SAWMA and his companions sat upon the roof the
mansion in which they lived, and they admired the way in which the
Franks waged war for they attacked none of the people except those who
were actually combatants (55).

And from that place they travelled inland on horses,
and they passed
through towns and villages and marvelled because they found no land
which was destitute of buildings. On the road they heard that MAR PAPA
[Honorius IV who died in 1287] was dead.

After some days they arrived in Great Rome (56). And
RABBAN SAWMA
went into the church of PETER and PAUL, for the Cell [Vatican?] of the
throne of Mar Papa was situated therein. Now after the death of Mar
Papa, twelve men who were called "Kaltunare" [not chartularii, but
Cardinals] administered the [papal] throne. And whilst they were taking
counsel together in order to appoint a new Pope, Rabban Sawma sent a
message to them saying, "We who are ambassadors of King ARGHON and of
the Catholicus of the East [have arrived]" ; and fhe Cardinals ordered
them to come in. And the Franks who accompanied RABBAN SAwmA [and his
companions] informed them that when they were going into the Cell
[Vatican ?] of Mar Papa [they would find] there an altar at which they
must bow [or kneel down ?], land then they must go in and salute the
Cardinals. And thus they did, and [their act] was pleasing to those
Cardinals. And when RABBAN SAWMA went into their presence no man stood
up before him, for by reason of the honourable nature of the Throne,
the twelve Cardinals were not in the habit of doing this. And they made
RABBAN SAWMA sit down with them, and one of them asked him, " How art
thou after all the fatigue of the road ? And he made answer to him, "
Through your prayers I am well and rested." And the Cardinal said unto
him, "For what purpose hast thou, come hither?" And RABBAN SAWMA said
unto him, "The Mongols and the Catholicus of the East have sent me to
Mar Papa concerning the matter of Jerusalem; and they have sent letters
with me." And the Cardinals said unto him, "For the present rest
thyself, and we will discuss the matter together later"; and they
assigned to him a mansion and caused him to be taken down thereto

Three days later the Cardinals sent and summoned
RABBAN SAWMA to
their presence. And when he went to them they began to ask him
questions, saying, "What is thy quarter of the world, and why has thou
come?"And he replied in the selfsame words he had already spoden to
them (57). And they said unto him, "Where doth the Catholixus live? And
which of the Apostles taught the Gospel in thy quarter of the world?
"And he answered them, saying, "MAR THOMAS, and MAR ADDAI, and MAR MARI
taught the Gospel in our quarter of the world, and we hold at the
present time the canons [or statutes] which they delivered unto us."The
Cardinals said unto him, "Where is the Throne of the Catholicus?"He
said to them, "In BAGHDAD."They answered, What position hast thou
there?"And he replied, "am a deacon in the Cell of the Catholicus, and
the director of the disciples, and the Visitor-General."The Cardinals
said, " It is a marvellous thing that thou who art a Christian, and a
deacon of the Throne of the Patriarch of the East has come upon an
embassy from the king of the Mongols."And RABBAN SAWMA said unto them,
"Know ye, O our Fathers, that many of our Fathers have gone into the
countries of the Mongols, and Turks, and Chinese and have taught them
the Gospel, and at the present time there are many Mongols who are
Christians. For many of the sons of the Mongol kings and queens (58)
have been baptized and confess Christ. And they have established
churches in their military camps, and they pay honour to the
Christians, and there are among them many who are believers. Now the
king [of the Mongols], who is joined in the bond of friendship with the
Catholicus, hath the desire to take PALESTINE, and the countries of
SYRIA, and he demandeth from you help in order to take JERUSALEM. He
hath chosen me and hath sent me to you because, being a Christian, my
word will be believed by you. "And the Cardinals said unto him, "What
is thy confession of faith? To what 'way' art thou attached? Is it that
which Mar Papa holdeth to-day or some other one?"RABBAN SAWMA replied,
"No man hath come to us Orientals from the Pope. The holy Apostle whose
names I have mentioned taught us the Gospel, and to what they delivered
unto us we have clung to the present day." The Cardinals said unto him,
"How dost thou believe? Recite thy belief, article by article."RABBAN
SAWMA replied to them, saying:--

THE BELIEF OF RABBAN SAWMA, WHICH THE CARDINALS DEMANDED FROM HIM

"I believe in One God, hidden, everlasting, without
beginning and
without (59) end, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit: Three Persons,
coequal and indivisible; among Whom there is none who is first, or
last, or young, or old: in Nature they are One, in Persons they are
three: the Father is the Begetter, the Son is the Begotten, the Spirit
proceedeth.

"In the last time one of the Persons of the Royal
Trinity, namely
the Son, put on the perfect man, Jesus Christ, from MARY the holy
virgin; and was united to Him Personally (parsopaith), and in
him saved (or redeemed) the world. In His Divinity He is eternally of
the Father; in His humanity He was born [a Being] in time of MARY; the
union is inseparable and indivisible for ever; the union is without
mingling, and without mixture, and without compaction. The Son of this
union is perfect God (60) and perfect man, two Natures (keyanin),and
two Persons (kenomin)--one parsopa ()

The Cardinals said unto him, “Doth the Holy Spirit
proceed from the
Father or from the Son, or is it separate?ö RABBAN SAWMA replied,
“Are the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit associated in the things
which appertain to the Nature (keyana) or separate?" The
Cardinals answered, "They are associated in the things which concern
the Nature (keyana) but are separate in respect of individual
qualities." RABBAN SAWMA said, "What are their individual qualities?"
The Cardinals replied, "Of the Father, the act of begetting: of the Son
the being begotten: of the Spirit the going forth (proceeding). RABBAN
SAWMA said, "Which of Them is the cause of that Other?" And the
Cardinals replied, "The Father is the cause of the Son, and the Son is
the cause of the Spirit." RABBAN SAWMA said, "If they are coequal in
Nature (keyana), and in operation, and in power, and in
authority (or dominion), and the Three Persons (kenome) are One,
how is it possible for one of Them to be the cause of the Other? For of
necessity (61) the Spirit also must be the cause of some other thing;
but the discussion is extraneous to the Confession of faith of wise
men. We cannot find a demonstration resembling this statement of yours.

"For behold, the soul is the cause both of the
reasoning power and
the act of living, but the reasoning power is not the cause of the act
of living. The sphere of the sun is the cause of light and heat, and
heat is not the cause of light. Thus we think that which is correct,
namely, that the Father is the cause of the Son and the Spirit, and
that both the Son and the Spirit are causations of His. Adam begot
Seth, and made Eve to proceed [from him], and they are three; because
in respect there is absolutely no difference between begetting and
making to go forth (or proceed)."

Then the Cardinals said unto him, "We confess that
the Spirit
proceedeth from the Father and the Son, but not as we said, for we were
only putting thy modesty [or, religious belief?] to the test. "And
RABBAN SAWMA said, "It is not right that to something which is one,
two, three, or four causes should be [assigned]; on the contrary I do
not think that this resembleth our Confession of Faith. "Now though the
Cardinals restrained (62) his speech by means of very many
demonstrations, they held him in high esteem because of his power of
argument.

Then RABBAN SAWMA said unto them, "I have come from
remote countries
neither to discuss, nor to instruct [men] in matter of the Faith, but I
came that I might receive a blessing from MAR PAPA, and from the
shrines of the saints and to make known the words of King [ARGHON] and
the Catholicus. If it be pleasing in your eyes, let us set aside
discussion, and do ye give attention and direct someone to show us the
churches here and the shrines of the saints; [if ye will do this] ye
will confer a very great favour on your servant and disciple."

Then the Cardinals summoned the Amir of the city and
certain monks
and commanded them to show him the churches and the holy places that
were there; and they went forth straightway and saw the places which we
will now mention. First of all they went into the church of PETER and
PAUL. Beneath the Throne is a naos, and in this is laid (63) the body
of SAINT PETER, and above the throne is an altar. The altar which is in
the middle of that are, temple has four doorways, and in each of these
two folding doors worked with designs in fro; MAR PAPA celebrates the
Mass at this altar, and no person besides himself may stand on the
bench of that altar. Afterwards they saw the Throne of MAR PETER
whereon they make MAR PAPA to sit when they appoint him. And the also
saw the strip of fine [or thin] linen on which our Lord impressed His
image and sent to King ABHGAR of URHAI (Edessa). Now the extent of that
temple and its splendour cannot be described; it stands on one hundred
and eight pillars. In it is another altar at which the King of their
Kings receives the laying on of hands [i.e. is consecrated and
crowned], and is proclaimed "Ampror (Emperor) King of Kings,"by the
Pope. And they say that after the prayer Mar Papa takes up the Crown
with his feet and clothes the Emperor with it (64), that is to say,
places it upon his own head [to show], as they say, that priesthood
reigneth over sovereignty[or kingship].

And when they had seen all the churches and
monasteries that were in
Great Rome, they went outside the city to the church of MAR PAUL the
Apostle, where under the altar is his tomb. And there, too, is the
chain wherewith Paul was bound when he was dragged to that place. And
in that altar there are also a reliquary of gold herein is the head of
MAR STEPHEN the Martyr, and the hand of MAR KHANANYA (ANANIAS) who
baptized PAUL. And the staff of PAUL the Apostle is also there. And
from that place they went to the spot where PAUL the Apostle, was
crowned [with martyrdom]. They say that when his head was cut off it
leaped up thrice into the air, and at each time cried out CHRIST!
CHRIST! And that from each of the three places on which his head fell
there came forth waters which were useful for healing purposes, and for
giving help to all those who were afflicted. And in that place there is
a great shrine (65) wherein are the bones of martyrs and famous
Fathers, and they were blessed by them.

And they went also to the Church of my Lady MARYAM,
and of MAR JOHN
the Baptist, and saw therein the seamless tunic of our Lord. And there
is also in that church the tablet [or slab] on which our Lord
consecrated the Offering and gave it to His disciples. And each year
Mar Papa consecrates on that tablet the Paschal Mysteries. There are in
that church four pillars of copper [or brass], each of which is six
cubits in thickness; these, they say, the kings brought from Jerusalem.
They saw also there the vessel in which CONSTANTINE, the victorious
king, was baptized; it is made of black stone [basalt?] polished. Now
that church is very large and broad, and there are in the nave (haikla)
one hundred and forty white marble pillars. They saw also the place
where SIMON KIPA [i.e. Simon the Rock] disputed with SIMON [Magus], and
where the latter fell down and his bones were broken.

From that place they went into the church of MART
MARYAM, and [the
priests] brought out for them reliquaries made of beryl (crystal?),
wherein was (66) the apparel of MART MARYAM, and a piece of wood on
which our Lord had lain when a child. They saw also the head of MATTHEH
the Apostle, in a reliquary of silver. And they saw the foot of PHILIP,
the Apostle, and the arm of JAMES, the son of ZABHDA! (ZEBEDEE}, in the
Church of the Apostles, which was there. And after these [sights] they
saw buildings which it is impossible to describe in words, and as the
histories of those buildings would make any description of them very
long I abandon [the attempt].

After this RABBAN SAWMA and his companions returned
to the
Cardinals, and thanked them for having held him to be worthy to see
these shrines and to receive blessings from them. And RABBAN SAWMA
asked from them permission to go to the king who dwelleth in Rome; and
they permitted him to go, and said, "We cannot give thee an answer
until the [new] Pope is elected."

And they went from that place to the country of
TUSZKAN (TUSCANY),
and were honourably entreated, and thence they (67) went to GINOH
(GENOA). Now the latter country has no king, but the people thereof set
up to rule over it some great man with whom they are pleased.

And when the people of GENOA heard that an
ambassador of King ARGHON
had arrived, their Chief went forth with a great crowd of people, and
they brought him into the city.

And there was there a great church with the name of
SAINT SINALORNIA
(SAN LORENZO), in which was the holy body of MAR JOHN the Baptist, in a
coffer of pure silver. And RABBAN SAWMA and his companions saw also a
six-sided paten, made of emerald, and the people there told them that
it was off this paten from which our Lord ate the Passover with His
disciples, and that it was brought there when Jerusalem was captured.
And from that place they went to the country of ONBAR, [according to
Bedjan, Lombardy] and they saw that the people there did not fast
during the first Sabbath of Lent. And when they asked them, "Wherefore
do ye do thus, and separate yourselves from all [other]
Christians"(68), they replied, "This is our custom. When we were first
taught the Gospel our fathers in the Faith were weakly and were unable
to fast. Those who taught them the Gospel commanded them to fast forty
days only."

RABBAN SAWMA IN FRANSA OR FRANGESTAN

Afterwards they went to the country of PARIZ
(Paris), to king
FRANSIS [i.e. Philippe IV le Bel]. And the king sent out a large
company of men to meet them, and they brought them into the city with
great honour and ceremony. Now the territories of the French king were
in extent more than a month's journey. And the king of France assigned
to Rabban Sawma a place wherein to dwell, and three days later sent one
of his Amirs to him and summoned him to his presence. And when he had
come the king stood up before him and paid him honour, and said unto
him, "Why hast thou come? And who sent thee?"And RABBAN SAWMA said unto
him, "King ARGHON and the Catholicus of the East have sent me
concerning the matter of JERUSALEM."And he showed him all the matters
(69) which he knew, and he gave him the letters which he had with him,
and the gifts, that is to say, presents which he had brought. And the
king of FRANCE answered him, saying, "If it be indeed so that the
MONGOLS, though they are not Christians, are going to fight against the
Arabs for the capture of JERUSALEM, it is meet especially for us that
we should fight [with them], and if our Lord willeth, go forth in full
strength."

And RABBAN SAWMA said unto him, "Now that we have
seen the glory of
thy kingdom, and have looked upon the splendour of your strength with
the eye of flesh, we ask you to command the men of the city to show us
the churches and the shrines, and the relics of the saints, and
everything else which is found with you, and is not to be seen in any
other country, so that when we return we may make known in the
[various] countries what we have seen with you."Then the king commanded
his Amirs, saying, "Go forth and show them all the wonderful things
which we have here, and afterwards I myself will show [them] what I
have."And the Amirs went out with them.

(70) And RABBAN SAWMA and his companions remained
for a month of
days in this great city of Paris, and they saw everything that was in
it. There were in it thirty thousand scholars [i.e. pupils] who were
engaged in the study of ecclesiastical books of instruction, that is to
say of commentaries and exegesis of all the Holy Scriptures, and also
of profane learning; and they studied wisdom, that is to say philosophy
and [the art of] speaking (rhetoric?), and [the art of] healing,
geometry, arithmetic, and the science of the planets and the stars; and
they engaged constantly in writing [theses], and all these pupils
received money for subsistence from the king. And they also saw one
Great Church wherein were the funerary coffers of dead kings, and
statues of them in gold and in silver were upon their tombs. And five
hundred monks were engaged in performing commemoration services in the
burial-place [i.e. mausoleum] of the kings, and they all ate and drank
at the expense of the king. And they fasted and prayed continually in
the burial-place of those kings. And the crowns of those kings, and
their armour (71), and their apparel were laid upon their tombs. In
short RABBAN SAWMA and his companions saw everything which was splendid
and renowned.

And after this the king sent and summoned them, and
they went to him
in the church, and they saw him standing by the side of the altar, and
they saluted him. And he asked RABBAN SAWMA saying, "Have you seen what
we have? And doth there not remain anything else for you to see?"Then
RABBAN SAWMA thanked him [and said "There is not"]. Forthwith he went
up with the king into an upper chamber of gold, which the king opened,
and he brought forth from it a coffer of beryl wherein was laid the
Crown of Thorns which the Jews placed upon the head of our Lord when
they crucified Him. Now the Crown was visible in the coffer, which,
thanks to the transparency of the beryl, remained unopened. And there
was also in the coffer a piece of the wood of the Cross. And the king
said to RABBAN SAWMA and his companions, "When our fathers took
Constantinople, and sacked Jerusalem, they brought these blessed
objects from it."And we blessed the king and besought him to give us
the order to return. (72) And he said unto us, "I will send with you
one of the great Amirs whom I have here with me to give an answer to
King Arghon"; and the king gave RABBAN SAWMA gifts and apparel of great
price.

RABBAN SAWMA GOES TO THE KING OF ENGLAND [i.e. EDWARD I]

And they went forth from that place, that is to say,
from PARIS, to
go to the king of England, to Kasonia (GASCONY?). And having arrived in
twenty days at their city [BORDEAUX?], the inhabitants of the city went
forth to meet them, and they asked them, "Who are ye?"And RABBAN SAWMA
and his companions replied, "We are ambassadors, and we have come from
beyond the eastern seas, and we are envoys of the King, and of the
Patriarch, and the Kings of the Mongols."And the people made haste and
went to the king and informed him [of their arrival], and the king
welcomed them gladly, and the people introduced them into his presence.
And those who were with RABBAN SAWMA straightway gave to the king the
PUKDANA [i.e. letter of authorisation] of King Arghon, and the gifts
which he had sent to him, and the Letter of Mar Catholicus (73). And
[King Edward] rejoiced greatly, and he was especially glad when Rabban
Sawma talked about the matter of Jerusalem. And he said, "We the kings
of these cities bear upon our bodies the sign of the Cross, and we have
no subject of thought except this matter. And my mind is relieved on
the subject about which I have been thinking, when I hear that King
Arghon thinketh as I think."And the king commanded Rabban Sawma to
celebrate the Eucharist, and he performed the Glorious Mysteries; and
the king and his officers of state stood up, and the king partook of
the Sacrament, and made a great feast that day.

Then RABBAN SAWMA said unto the king, "We beseech
thee, O king, to
give [thy servants] in order to show us whatever churches and shrines
there are in this country, so that when we go back to the Children of
the East we may give them descriptions of them."And the king replied,
"Thus shall ye say to King Arghon and unto all the Orientals: We have
seen a thing than which there is nothing more wonderful, that is to
say, that in the countries of the Franks there are not two Confessions
of Faith, but only one Confession of Faith, namely, that which
confesseth Jesus Christ; and all the Christians confess it."And King
Edward gave us many gifts and money for the expenses of the road (74).

RABBAN SAWMA RETURNS TO ROME

And from that place we came to the city of Genoa, in
order to pass
the winter there. And when we arrived there we saw a garden which
resembled Paradise; its winter was not [too] cold, and its summer is
not [too] hot. Green foliage is found therein all the year round, and
trees, the leaves of which do not fall, and which are not stripped of
their fruit. There is in the city a kind of vine which yields grapes
seven times a year, but the people do not press out wine from them.

At the end of the winter there came from the country
of ALMADAN
(ALLEMAGNE?) a man of high degree, who was the.., i.e. "Visitor"of MAR
PAPA, and who was on his way to Rome.8
And when he heard that RABBAN SAWMA was there, he went to visit him and
salute him. And when he entered [his house] they gave each other
"Peace!"and they kissed each other in the love of Christ. And the
Visitor said unto RABBAN SAWMA (75), "I have come to see thee. For I
have heard concerning thee, that thou art a good and wise man, and also
that thou hast the desire to go to Rome."And RABBAN SAWMA said unto
him, "What shall I say unto thee, O beloved and noble man? I have come
on an embassy from King ARGHON, and the Catholicus of the East to MAR
PAPA on the subject of Jerusalem. Behold I have been a year of days
[since I came], and a Pope hath not sat. When I go back what shall I
say and what answer can I make to the MONGOLS? Those, whose hearts are
harder than flint, wish to take the Holy City, and those to whom it
belongeth never allow the matter to occupy their minds, and moreover,
they do not consider this thing to be of any importance whatsoever! We
shall go and say we know not."Then the Visitor said unto him, "Thy
words are true. I myself will go and show in their integrity the
Cardinals all the words which thou hast spoken, and will urge them to
appoint a Pope."

And that Visitor departed from him and went to Rome,
and he
explained the matter to the king, that is to say MAR PAPA (76), and
that same day the Pope sent a messenger to RABBAN SAWMA and his
companions [bidding] them to go to him. And as soon as ever the
messenger had arrived, they set out for Rome with the greatest
readiness and they arrived there in fifteen days. And they asked, "Who
is this Pope whom they have appointed?"And [the people] said, "It is
the bishop who held converse with you when ye came here the first time,
and his name is NIKALIOS [i.e. NICHOLAS IV, who was elected Pope in
February, 1288]."And RABBAN SAWMA and his companions rejoiced greatly.

And when they arrived MAR PAPA sent out a
Metropolitan bishop and a
large company of men to meet them. And starightway RABBAN SAWMA went
into the presence of MAR PAPA, who was seated on his throne. And he
drew nigh to the Pope, bowing down to the ground as he did so, and he
kissed his feet and his hands, and he withdrew walking backwards, with
his hands clasped [on his breast]. And he said to MAR PAPA, "May thy
throne stand for ever, O our Father! And may it be blessed above all
kings and nations! And may it make peace to reign in thy days (77)
throughout the Church to the uttermost ends of the earth! Now that I
have seen thy face mine eyes are illuminated, and I shall not go away
brokenhearted to the countries [of the East]. I give thanks to the
goodness of God who hath held me to be worthy to see thy face."Then
RABBAN SAWMA presented unto him the gift of King Arghon and his
Letters, and the gift of MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA the Catholicus, that is to
say a blessing [i.e. gift] and his Letter. And MAR PAPA rejoiced and
was glad, and he paid more honour to RABBAN SAWMA than was customary,
and he said unto him, "It will be good if thou wilt keep the festival
with us, for thou wilt see our use."Now that day [marked] the half of
our Lord's Fast [i.e. Mid-Lent]. And RABBAN SAWMA made answer, "Your
command is high and exalted."And MAR PAPA assigned to him a mansion in
which to dwell, and he appointed servants to give him everything he
might require.

Some days later RABBAN SAWMA said to MAR PAPA, "I
wish to celebrate
the Eucharist so that ye might see our use"; and the Pope commanded him
to do as he had asked. And on that day a very large number of people
were gathered together in order to see how the ambassador of the
Mongols celebrated the Eucharist (78). And when they had seen they had
rejoiced and said, "The language is different, but the use is the
same."Now the day on which he celebrated was the Sunday [on which the
prayer beginning] "ainaw asya"[i.e. Who is the physician"] is recited.
And having performed the mysteries, he went to MAR PAPA and saluted
him. And the Pope said unto RABBAN SAWMA, "May God receive thy
offering, and bless thee, and pardon thy transgressions and sins."Then
RABBAN SAWMA said, "Besides the pardon of my transgressions and sins
which I have received from thee, O our Father, I beseech thy
Fatherhood, O our holy Father, to let me receive the Offering from thy
hands, so that the remission [of my sins] may be complete."And the Pope
said, "So let it be!"

And on the following First Day of the Week, which
was the Festival
of Hosannas [i.e. Palm Sunday], from the break of day onwards,
countless thousands and tens of thousands of people gathered together
before the papal throne, and brought branches of olives, which the Pope
blessed and gave to the Cardinals, and then to the Metropolitans and
then to the Bishops, and then to the Amirs, and then to the nobles, and
then he cast them among all the people. And he rose up from the throne
(79), and they brought him into the church with great ceremony. And he
went into the apse of the altar and changed his apparel, and he put on
a red vestment with threads of gold [running through it], and
ornamented with precious stones, and jacinths, and pearls down to the
soles of his feet, that is to say, sandals. And he went to the altar,
and then went forth to the pulpit, and addressed the people and
admonished them. And he consecrated the Mysteries and gave the
Eucharist Mystery to RABBAN SAWMA first of all--he having confessed his
sins--and the Pope pardoned his transgressions and his sins and those
of his fathers. And RABBAN SAWMA rejoiced greatly in receiving the
Eucharistic Mystery from the hand of MAR PAPA. And he received it with
tears and sobs, giving thanks to God and meditating upon the mercies
which had been poured out upon him.

Afterwards, on the day of the Holy Passover
(Thursday) MAR PAPA went
to the church of MAR JOHN the Baptist, when a large number of people
had gathered together. He went up into a great furnished and decorated
chamber which was there--and before this chamber there was a large open
space--and the Cardinals, and the Metropolitans, and the Bishops went
with him; and they began (80) to recite a prayer. And when the prayer
was ended, MAR PAPA addressed and admonished the congregation,
according to custom; and by reason of the great multitude of people
that was there not one word could be heard except "Amen."And when
"Amen"was uttered, the ground shook through the outcries of the people.
Then MAR PAPA came down from that place and [stood] before the altar,
and he consecrated the oil of Muron, that is to say, the oil of
anointing. And afterwards he consecrated the Mysteries which bestow
pardon, and gave the Eucharistis Mystery to the people. And he went
forth from that place and entered the great temple (nave?), and gave to
each of his reverend Fathers two gold tarpe [i.e. "leaves" (sheets?)]
and thirty silver parpare [i.e. silver coins], and then went out. And
MAR PAPA gathered together the people of his Cell [i.e. his palace
household], and he washed their feet, and he wiped [them] with a napkin
which he had wrapped around his loins, to the end. And when he had
finished all the services of the Passover, at mid-day he made a great
table [i.e. feast], and the servants placed before every man his
portion of food. Now those who reclined [i.e. sat at meat] were two
thousand, more or less. And when they removed the bread from the table
only three hours of the day were left (81).

And on the following day, which was the Passion of
our Redeemer, MAR
PAPA put on a black cloak, and all the reverend Fathers did likewise.
And they went forth barefooted and walked to the church of my Lord, the
Adorable Cross; and MAR PAPA did homage to it, and kissed it, and gave
it to each one of the reverend Fathers. And when crowds of people saw
it they uncovered their heads, and they knelt down on their knees and
did homage before it (i.e. adored it]. Then MAR PAPA addressed and
admonished the people, and at the same time he mde the sign of the
Cross over the four quarters of the world. And when the service of
prayer was concluded, he brought some of the Paschal Offering, and set
wine with it, and MAR PAPA partook by himself of that Offering (now it
is not customary for Christians to offer up the Offering on the day of
the Passion of our Redeemer), and went back to his Cell [i.e. palace].

And on the day of the Sabbath of Light MAR PAPA went
to the church,
and they read the Books of the Prophets, and the prophecies concerning
the Messiah. And he placed in position the Wazna, i.e. baptismal font,
and arranged branches of myrtle round about it, and MAR PAPA
consecrated the baptism-water and baptized three children, and signed
them with the sign of the Cross. Then he went to the apse and changed
his apparel of the Passion (82), and he put on his ceremonial
vestments, to state the price of which is beyond the power of words,
and he celebrated the Holy Mysteries.

And on the day of the Sunday of the Resurrection MAR
PAPA went to
the holy church of my LADY MARY. And he and the Cardinals, and the
Metropolitans, and the Bishops, and the members of the congregation
saluted each other, and they kissed each other on the mouth, and he
celebrated the Mysteries, and they receive Eucharistic Mystery, and
then he returned to his Cell [i.e. palace]. And he made a great feast,
and [there was] infinite gladness. And on the following Sunday Mar Papa
performed the laying on of hands, and he consecrated three bishops And
RABBAN SAWMA and his companions saw the use followed, and they
celebrated the blessed festivals with them.

And when these things had taken place RABBAN SAWMA
asked MAR PAPA
for [his] command to return. And MAR PAPA said unto him, "We wish thee
to remain with us, and to abide with us, and we will guard thee like
the pupil of our eye."But RABBAN SAWMA replied, "O our Father, I came
on an embassy for your service (?). If my coming had been the result of
my personal wish, l would willingly (83) bring to an end the days of
this my useless life in your service at the outer door of your palace.
[But I must return], and believe that when I go back and show the show
who are there the benefits which thou hast conferred upon my poor
person, that the Christians will gain great content thereby. Now I
beseech our Holiness to bestow upon me some of the relics [of the
saints] which ye have with you."

And MAR PAPA said, "If we had been in the habit of
giving away these
relics to the people [who come] in myriads, even though the relics were
as large as the mountains, they would have come to an end long ago. But
since thou hast come from a far country, we will give thee a few."And
he gave to RABBAN SAWMA a small piece of the apparel of our Lord
Christ, and a piece of the cape () that is to say, kerchief of my LADY
MARY, and some small fragments of the bodies of the saints that were
there. And he sent to MARR YAHBH-ALLAHA a crown for his head which was
of fine gold and was inlaid with precious stones; and sacred vestments
made of red cloth through which ran threads of gold; and socks and
sandals on which real pearls were sewn; (84) and the ring from his
finger; and a "Pethikha"or Bull which authorized him to exercise
Patriarchal dominion over all the Children of the East. And he gave to
RABBAN SAWMA a "Pethikha"which authorized him to act as Visitor-General
over all Christians. And Mar Papa blessed him and he caused to be
assigned to him for expenses on the road one thousand, five hundred
mathkale of red gold. And to King Arghon he sent certain gifts. And he
embraced RABBAN SAWMA and kissed him and dismissed him. And RABBAN
SAWMA thanked our Lord who had held him to be worthy of such blessings
as these.

THE RETURN OF RABBAN SAWMA FROM ROME AND FROM MAR PAPA, THE
CATHOLICUS PATRIARCH OF THE ROMANS AND OF ALL WESTERNS

And RABBAN SAWMA returned. He crossed the seas which
he crossed when
he came, and he arrived (85) in peace at the place where King ARGHON
was, sound in body, and with soul safely kept. And he gave to him the
Letter of Blessings, and the gifts which he had brought from MAR PAPA
and from all the kings of the Franks. And he showed him how they had
welcomed him with love, and how they had hearkened gladly to the
Pukdane (or Royal Dispatches) which he had carried [to them], and he
related the wonderful things which he had seen, and the power of
[their] kingdom[s]. And King rejoiced, and was glad, and thanked him,
and said unto him; "We have made thee to suffer great fatigue, for thou
art an old man. In future we shall not permit thee to leave us; nay, we
will set up a church. at the Gate of our Kingdom (i.e. palace), and
thou shaft minister therein and recite prayers."And RABBAN SAWMA said,
"If my lord the king would command MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, to
come and receive the gifts which have been sent to him by MAR PAPA, and
the sacred vestments which he destined for him, he could set up the
church which the king is going to set up at the Door of his Kingdom,
and consecrate it."And these things took place in this way. Now because
it was not our intention to relate and set out in order all the
unimportant things which RABBAN SAWMA did (86) and saw, we have
abridged very much of what he himself wrote in his narrative in
Persian. And even the things which are mentioned here have been
abridged or amplified, according to necessity.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GOOD ACTS OF KING ARGHAN, AND HIS DEATH

In the year one thousand five hundred and
ninety-eight [read one
thousand six hundred of the Greeks [=A.D. 1288], King Arghon gave the
command to transport MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA to the Camp, even as RABBAN SAWMA
had asked. And for the honour of the Catholicus, and also to support
(or sustain) the hearts of all the Christians who confessed Christ, and
to increase the love for Him among them, he set up a church so close to
the Door of the Throne, that the ropes of the curtains of (87) the
church intermingled with those of his house. [N.B.-The church was a
tent]. And he made a great feast [which lasted] three days, and King
Arghon himself brought food to the Catholicus, and handed the cup of
drink to him and to all the members of his company. And the king took
care that reverend men, and holy Fathers (i.e. bishops) and priests,
and deacons, and monks, should keep vigil in the church and recite the
offices and that the beater of the board [which summed men to prayer]
should never be idle in that church And thus the glory (or praise) of
the Christians, both Orientals and Occidentals, increased until at
length with one mouth they cried out, "Blessed is the Lord Who hath
made us rich! The Lord hath visited His people, and hath made for it
redemption!"And when the Camp moved, the priests moved the church and
all that belonged to it. And Rabban Sawma became the director of that
church, and its chief, and steward, and he distributed food and the
things necessary for the priests, and deacons, and visitors, and
caretakers of the church. And King ARGH6N commanded by reason of his
great affection for RABBAN SAWMA, that the recital of the Eucharistic
Office for his benefit, and of prayers said on his behalf, should never
cease (88).

And in the following year, which is the year of the
Greeks, one
thousand five hundred and ninety-nine [read one thousand six hundred
and one=1289]; in the month of 'Ilul (September), King Arghon went to
the Cell (i.e. palace) in the city of MARAGHA to see Mar Catholicus. He
had had his son [Kharbande] born in 1281, baptized in the month of Abh
(August), and he commanded him to receive the Mysteries which gave
pardon. And thus the Preaching of Life increased, and the Gospel (or
glad tidings) of the kingdom of heaven spread throughout the world,
until at length people ere gathered together from all parts to the
Patriarchal mansion to obtain help therefrom. And it was not only the
Christians of the Faith who thronged there to be assisted by Mar
Catholicus in the fulfillment of the requests. [Text defective:
translation doubtful].

Now when the state of affairs which we have
mentioned had remained
thus for a short time, God the Lord of the Universe, the Lord of death
and of going forth, removed King ARGHON to the seat of joys and to the
Abrahamic bosom. And at his departure grief fettered the whole Church
which is under the heavens, because the things which were done before
his time (89) and were done badly were rightly straightened in his
time. And who was there who did not suffer by the change of
sovereignty? For how could it be otherwise? Behold it is a matter of
difficulty for every man, and hard to describe especially when a man
knoweth the nobles of the King and all the members of the royal
household, to say nothing of the king of the time himself.

CHAPTER IX

KING KAIKHATO AND MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

Now the Church passed some days with matters in this
state, when
suddenly, a younger brother of the dead king, who was called IRNAGHIN
T0NGHIN, burst forth, and was crowned king [under the name of]
KAIKHATO; he took the sceptre of the kingdom and sat upon the throne of
his brother. He [began to] rule (90) in the year of the Greeks, one
thousand six hundred and two [=1291] in the month of Abh (August) of
that year All creation was at peace, rebellion died and hid itself, the
light of righteousness rose and made itself visible, for Kaikhato, the
blessed king, did not turn aside from the way of his fathers. He
established in his position every one of those who followed [divers]
cults, he paid honour to the leaders of all religions, whether
Christians, or Arabs, or Jews, or Pagans. He considered the face of no
man [i.e. he was strictly impartial] and he neither turned aside nor
swerved from justice, gold being accounted as dross in his sight. His
alms were boundless, and there was no end to his gifts in charity. For
every one who asked from him received, even as it is written (Luke xi.
10), and he who sought, found; and experience showed that this was
literally true.

Now he came to reign in the month of the year which
has been
mentioned above. On the day of the festival of the commemoration of
Saint Maryam (the Virgin My Lady Mary)--may her prayer be upon (i.e.
protect) the world!-- which [is celebrated] in the middle of the month
of Abh, he went into the church which TAWUS (DOKUZ) KHATON [the first
wife of HULAGO] had set up (91) in the blessed Camp. Now they were at
that time in the mountain called ALATAK (ALA DAGH). When our Father the
Catholicus celebrated the Mysteries, the king was glad and rejoiced
greatly; and he gave gifts to the Catholicus, twenty thousand dinars (
£10,000) and nine gorgeous dibage, i.e. vestments made of silk
with gold threads interwoven. On that day the sons of the kings and the
daughters of the queens, and the Amirs, and the nobles, and the troops
were gathered together there. And the glory of the Holy Catholic Church
became as great, nay greater, than it was before. And the hearts of the
Christians gained courage and waxed strong, when they knew the mind of
the victorious king and heard his words, for his good qualities and his
gracious acts could be felt with hands. And from day to day the glory
increased, and the splendour of their Church grew apace, and this took
place through the great care and foresight, and the wise rule of Mar
Catholicus, [in which] he used his under standing for the glorification
of the children of the kingdom (i.e. the Royal Family) (92).

Now because RABBAN SAWMA had already become an old
man, the hard
life of the Mongols, and the prolonged sojourning in desert places,
became intolerable to him. And he caused the victorious King KAIKHATO
to promulgate an order for him to build a church in the city of
MARAGHAH, and to place therein the vessels and the vestments for the
service of the church, which the dead King Arghon had set up in the
Camp. And his request was granted by the king. And as soon as he
received this permission he at once set out for city of MARAGHAH,
taking with him the vessels and vestments for the service of MAR
Catholicus. And he laid. the foundations and built a fine church in the
names of MAR MARI and MAR GEORGE, the glorious martyr. And there were
placed in it the relics of forty martyrs, of MAR STEPHEN [the
protomartyr], and MAR JAMES, who was cut into pieces [by the order of
WARHARAN V, king of Persia A.D. 421], and MAR DEMETRIUS, the martyr. He
furnished it with costly vessels and vestments for the service of every
kind, and he founded a series of endowments from which the things which
would be required for it could be always provided and maintained. And
this [he did] with the help of the illustrious MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA (93),
the Catholicus. And in the summer of the following year the victorious
King KAIKHATO came twice to the Cell which was in MARAGHAH, and he
sojourned with Mar Catholicus for three days, and rejoiced with an
exceeding great joy. And he gave great gifts and presents to Mar
Catholicus, viz., a Paiza of gold, that is to say, the tablet which is
called "Sunkor"(see above p. 19), and seven thousand diners
(£3,500).

CHAPTER X

THE DEATH OF RABBAN SAWMA AND OF THE KINGS KAIKHATO AND BAIDU

RABBAN SAWMA toiled by night and by day in the
church which he had
built, and he arranged everything in it in a perfect manner. And the
expenses incurred in building the church, and in providing the
endowment, that is to say, Wakf, which was assigned to it, amounted to
(94) one hundred and five thousand zuze (about £8,250?)) more or
less. And he performed the service and recited the Offices regularly,
and he was exceedingly zealous in performing the Eucharistic Service,
which he had established in that church, continually. And he had great
repose in the Cell which he had built by the side of the church, of
which until now he himself is the ornament, and prayers and
celebrations of the Eucharist are constant therein. May our Lord give
him as the reward of his labour the happiness of the heavenly kingdom,
and a portion with the saints in the exalted regions of highest heaven.
And having finished the church which we have described above, RABBAN
SAWMA came down in the service of Mar Catholicus to Baghdad, in the
year of the Greeks, one hundred six hundred and five, in the month of
the first Teshri (October) of that year [A.D. 1293].

And King BAIDAR (read BAIDO), the son of the brother
of King ABHGHA,
made a great feast in a place called SIRZUR (SHAHARZUR, in KURDISTAN)
in (95) honour of the Catholic and he gathered together all the
officials of his Court to the banquet. And RABBAN SAWMA rose up with
his temperament disordered and he fell down, being seized with fever.
On the following day he bade farewell to King BIDAR (BAIDU), and he
arrived in the city of ARBIL to settle urgent affairs, and [enjoy] the
kindness (?) of the church folk. And the sickness of RABBAN SAwMA
increased, and he was seized with severe pains, but he prolonged his
life until the Catholicus arrived in the city of BAGHDAD. And his
disease waxed heavy, healing took to flight, his life was despaired of,
and he departed from this world of nothingness and tribulation to the
world of holiness and to the City of the Saints, Jerusalem which is in
the heavens, on the night of the first Sunday after Epiphany when the
prayer beginning "Le'edtakh lukdam" (i.e. "to Thy Church") is said, on
the tenth day of the month Kanon' Khrai (January) of that same year
(A.D. 1294). And his holy body was buried in the Darath Rhomaye, on the
north side of the altar, outside the inner court, on the south side
(96) of the house of prayer. May his portion be with the Patriarchal
Fathers among whom he was laid! And may our Lord give him rest and set
him on His right hand on the great Day of Retribution wherein, with the
reward of justice and the Scales of Truth, He will reward every man
according to his labour!

Now MAR AHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, suffered very
great affliction
at the death of RABBAN SAWMA, and his weeping reached the heavens; he
mourned with the people in their grief so that none might say that he
constrained himself to mourn apart from them. And the nobles and
chiefs, that is to say governors, and all the Fathers of the city of
Baghdad came to offer him consolation, and he received consolation only
with the greatest difficulty on the third day, when he returned to his
Throne. And it was meet that he should suffer, and the law of nature
commanded it, for the deceased was a man of courage, for he was the
strong arm and support of the Gate of the Patriarchal Cell (i.e.
palace), not only of the Catholicus himself but of every Christian who
came to him.

And the Catholicus passed that winter in Baghdad
(97). On the day of
the great festival he set out, and met the victorious King KAIKHATO at
ALA TAK, where the royal Camp was. And the king honoured him with many
gifts, that is to say he gave him a cloak of great price, and two
splendid riding mules, and he assigned to him a "Sukur," that is to
say, a parasol, and he gave him sixty thousand zuze
[£2,500 or 5,000 dinars]. He refused nothing which MAR Catholicus
asked for whenever he open his mouth. Then MAR Catholicus returned from
the Camp of the victorious king, and he laid foundations of the holy
monastery of Saint Mar John the Baptist, on the north side of the city
of MARAGHAH, at a distance of about [two] thirds of a parasang, more or
less [about two miles] from the city, in the year mentioned (A.D.
1294), at the end of the month of Khaziran (June). He built up the wall
nearly to the top and the nave up as far as the spring of the roof.

Then suddenly storms broke, and the waves of
confusion rose high in
the kingdom; the Amirs acted treacherously towards (98) the king and
the tempests of suffering waxed strong on the world, and turmoil fell
on creation. And men were slain without sufficient cause, and very many
villages were looted by the soldiery with violence. And in the winter
of the year one thousand six hundred and six, according to [the Era of]
YAWAN [1295], the road from ADHORBIJAN to BAGHDAD and to DIARBAKR were
cut, and the fighters did not cease from the quarrels which they had
set afoot, and at length they destroyed King KAIKHATO by violent death,
and delivered the kingdom to King BAIDO. This unhappy [prince] only
accepted the kingdom through fear for his life. He remained on the
throne from the 24th day of the month of NISAN (April) until the 25th
day of the month of Ilul (September) of the same year, more or less. He
governed and reigned in a state of perturbation, and prolonged his days
in perpetual fear. Now without making over long [our] narrative, and
making [our] History, which has a definite object, become somewhat
different, it is impossible to describe completely the plots, and the
trickeries, and the crafty devices, and the treacherous works which the
enemies [of the kingdom] set on foot during the five months of the
struggle which went on between BAIDO and the victorious King KAZAN, the
son of the deceased King Arghon (99). To speak briefly the murderers of
the blessed King Khaikato, plotted the murder of his successor BAIDU.
Then division fell (i.e. took place), and the world was in turmoil. The
peoples of the Arabs roused themselves to take vengeance on the Church
and its children for the destruction which the father of these kings
had inflicted upon them. Then suddenly, on the Sunday [of the prayer]
"la-mese puma,"(i.e. "the mouth is unable") of that year (A.D. 1295),
on the 25th day of the month of Ilul (September), a rumour was heard of
the flight of King BAIDU and of his destruction, and with it came the
proofs, that in very truth the abandonment of [the Church by] God had
taken place (100).

CHAPTER XI

THE PERSECUTION OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA AND THE CHRISTIANS IN MARAGHAH

And a certain man, one of the Amirs, who was called
NAWRIZ, and who
feared not God bestirred himself, and sent letters by the hands of
envoys, and he made to fly to the four quarters of the dominions of
this kingdom, an order to this effect:--"The churches shall be uprooted
and the altars overturned, and the celebrations of the Eucharist shall
cease, and the hymns of praise, and the sounds of calls to prayer shall
be abolished; and the heads (or chiefs) of the Christians, and the
heads of the congregations [i.e. synagogues] of the Jews, and the great
men among them shall be killed."

And that same night [the Arabs] seized Mar
Catholicus in his Cell
(i.e. palace) in MARAGHAH, and outside the building no man knew
anything about the seizure of him until the day broke. And from the
morning of that day, which was the second day of the week (Monday) they
went into his Cell and plundered. everything that was in it, both that
which was old and that which was new, and they did not leave even a
nail in the walls.

And the night of the third day of the week (Tuesday)
following,
which was the 27th day of Ilul (September), the (101) Catholicus was
buffeted the whole night long by those who had seized him. And in
respect of the venerable men who were with him, the Arabs tied some of
them up naked with ropes; others cast aside their apparel and took to
flight, and others cast themselves down from high places [and
perished]. And they suspended the Catholicus by a rope head downwards,
and they took a cloth used for cleaning, that is to say, a duster, and
they put ashes in it, and tied it over his mouth, and one prodded him
in the breast with skewer (bukshina) saying, "Abandon this Faith of
thine that thou perish not; become a Hagaraya (Muhammadan) and thou
shalt be saved."And the Catholicus, weeping, answered them never a
word. And they smote him with a stick on the thighs and seat (i.e.
posterior). And they also took him up on to the roof of the Cell,
saying, "Give us gold and we will let thee go; point out to us they
treasures, show us the things which thou had hidden away, and reveal to
us thy hiding things and we will let thee go."

And Mar Catholicus because he was clothed with a
body feeble and
sensitive to pain, was afraid of death. And he began to cry out on the
roof, "Where are the disciples? How is it that those whom I have
brought up have betaken themselves to flight? Of what use are
possessions (or riches) to us? (102). Come ye and buy me back from
those who would sell me wrongfully, redeem your master. "Now the
people, men, and women, and youths, and children, in the darkness of
midnight were crying out with bitter tears, but no man was able to
approach the Catholicus because of [his] fear. Nevertheless they
received help from [their] weeping, and took refuge in [their] prayer,
saying, "Yea, ye mountains fall upon us! O ye hills cover us"(Luke
xxiix.30). And thus was fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet of the
Syrians [Aphrem Syrus], who said "Because we have despised the way, and
have regarded it with great contempt, [God] hath made us a reproach to
those who are outside; that we may drink from them mockery. The filthy
ones have ruined our churches, because we have not prayed in them in a
right manner; they have defiled the altar which is before Him [because]
we have not ministered thereto with pure service. [Bedjan's note in
Syriac reads, "Mar Aphrem. Reading I. Section II. Fourth day of
Rogation Week in the first half of the Reading."]

Finally, not to make our narrative too long, some of
the disciples
of the Patriarch's palace went and incurred a debt of fifteen thousand
zuze (either £2,500 or £7,500) and gave the money little by
little [to the Arabs], with the hope of (103) redeeming the Catholicus.
And when those who had seized the Catholicus had received the sum of
five thousand dinars, and the chalices, and the eucharistic patens, and
everything that was in the palace, and that debt [i.e. the money which
the disciple had undertaken to pay], they went forth from the palace at
mid-day of the third day of the week.

And then a great tumult took place, and the peoples
of the Arabs
came with a great rush to destroy the great church of Mar Shalita, the
holy martyr, and they destroyed it. And they took everything that was
in it, the veils (or hangings), and the vessels and other objects used
in the service. And the uproar made by their outcries, and the storm of
their shoutings shook almost the earth itself and the inhabitants
thereof. Peradventure the reader of this history, since he was not
caught in the middle of that storm, may think that the writer is
telling a fabulous story; but to speak the real truth, he who stateth
what is here written calleth God to witness, that it is impossible for
even one of the events which took place to be adequately described and
written!

Then King KHETAM (or HATHOM), TAKPUR (TAKAWOR) of
the ARIMNAYE
(ARMENIANS), came down (104} into that church which RABBAN SAWMA had
built, and by means of the greatness of his gifts (i.e. bribes), and by
his soldiers, saved it from destruction. And the Catholicus having made
his escape from the hands of those who had seized him, fled to it and
hid himself therein that night. In the morning of the following day,
which was the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), a certain Amir, who
was one of the envoys of the Nawruz mentioned above came and brought
certain letters [ordering] the murder of the Catholicus. And he seized
many of the men, among whom were some belonging to the TAKPUR, i.e.
king, [and said unto them "Show me the Catholicus, for I have certain
business with him." When Mar Catholicus heard this his heart quaked and
he fled from the church and left TAKPUR; and King TAKPUR appeased the
Amir with certain gifts which he gave to him, and he departed from
MARAGHAH.

After a few days, King TAKPUR himself (105) went to
TABHRIZ, and Mar
Catholicus changed all his apparel, and went forth by himself in the
guise of one of the servants, and he accompanied TAKPUR as far as the
city of Tabhriz, where King KAZAN had arrived. And the Catholicus kept
himself hidden for seven days, until TAKPUR had been able to go unto
the presence of King KAZAN, and make his story known to him, then
TAKPUR asked him to go and see the king. Now, since the men who were in
the regular service in the palace of the Catholicus were scattered,
there remained with the Catholicus a certain number of poor young men
who cleaved to him, and these went into the presence of King KAZAN with
him. And the king did not know him. And when he had saluted him he
asked him two questions: "Whence comest thou?"and "What is thy
name?"and that was all. And the Catholicus answered him in a word, i.e.
briefly, and blessed him, and then went forth, trembling having entered
his bones. But this was not due to [his fear of] death, but to his
seeing to what a pass the children of baptism (i.e. the Christians) had
come! And because of the angel who consoled him, and his wakeful mind
(106) admonished him, saying, "No temptation hath come to you except
that which is of the children of men"(I Cor. x.13), he still kept up
his courage with weeping and groaning, saying, "Who gave my head water,
and my eyes fountains of tears, that I should weep by day and by night
over the breaking of the daughter of my people? "(Jer. ix.1). Thus did
these things happen.

Now it was cold in those days, and the Camp was
removed to the
winter station of MUGHAN; and NAWRUZ, the accursed one, was at TABHRIZ.
And the Catholicus, without money for expenses, and without a beast to
ride, and without any baggage-animal, returned to MARAGHAH. He remained
a few days in [his] Cell, and then other men came seeking for him, but
he escaped from their hands by flight, but, though with considerable
risk, he went back there day after day. Now it was well known that all
glory which is of this world bringeth upon itself in the end the
humiliation which is from God, and that glory attaches in the end only
to the abject humiliation which [is endured] for God's sake. That
winter the Catholicus sent to the Camp [of the king] one of [his]
disciples so that (107) he might effect a change in the orders, and
make known [to the king] how matters were. And he returned as one
fleeing [for his life], for there was no one who would espouse the
cause of the Christians, or who would show compassion on those who were
broken[hearted]. This disciple only escaped with the greatest
difficulty from the hands of a man who was an unbeliever, and who had
abandoned his Faith and had become a Hagaraya (i.e. Muhammadan).

After the Feast of the Nativity of the year of the
Greeks, one
thousand six hundred and seven (A.D. 1295), on the Sunday [when the
prayer beginning] "Mare kul kadh badhemutha"(i.e. "the Lord of all in
the Image") [is said], messengers of Nawruz, the accursed one, again
came down against the Catholicus. They bore in their hands orders which
said, "Give us, O Catholicus, the ten thousand dinars which thou didst
receive in the time of King KAIKHATO. Behold the 'Tamgha,' that is to
say the document which is sealed with the seal of the Amir, and
contains the order for giving them back."Now the [treasury of the]
palace of the Catholicus was empty, for it had been plundered long ago.
When the servants of the palace heard this they straightway dispersed
and sought refuge in flight, and the Catholicus remained in the hands
of the Mongols who had become Muhammadans and those who had brought
them (108). And fear fell upon the sons of the Church (How [sad]
wouldst thou say. How [sad]!), and even the reverend old men who were
in the palace fled, Mar Catholicus remained alone in the hands of those
accursed and impudent men. That night he promised to give them a
village, but they would accept nothing but gold. And when straightway,
they threatened to beat him, he began to borrow [money] and to give it
[to them], and throughout that day, which was the first of the week
(Sunday), until towards the evening they took [from him] two thousand dinars.

Then certain of [his] disciples took counsel with
Mar Catholicus in
order to help him to flight, and to deliver him from the hands of those
[impudent men]. He was afraid [at first] of this, but when they pressed
him he harkened (i.e. consented). And at cock crow they brought him out
through a small opening in the chamber in which he was imprisoned. Now
the size of the opening was so small that a person would think that not
even a child could come out through it, and they lowered him down and
he went to other places and kept himself hidden.

And when the day dawned the Muslim Mongols were
sorely vexed and
they did not know what they were to do. And they were also afraid lest
someone should take vengeance on them (109), saying, "Ye have destroyed
the Catholicus."Thereupon they straightway went forth from the city,
and made their way to Baghdad.

And whilst these men were in the act of parting,
another messenger
arrived, an evil man who was more wicked than Nawruz, the accursed. And
there was with him a Christian who had become a Muhammadan, and he
brought with him another Order to the effect that thirty-six thousand
dinars ( £18,000) should be given [by the Catholicus]. And
because Mar Catholicus was in hiding, those impudent messengers seized
certain of the disciples in the palace, and by means of many blows and
tortures they reduced the bodies of the disciples to a state of
helplessness. And they hung them up head downwards [in the open air]
during the days of frost and snow when the cold was more intense than
any which had ever before been experienced. And after all [the people]
in the city had been gathered together to obtain their release, the
disciples were only delivered from the hands of these wicked men with
the greatest difficulty by paying sixteen thousand dinars
(£8,000). And the Catholicus and all those who cleaved to him,
whether venerable old men, or monks, or members of the laity, were
persecuted by every man, and were obliged to hide themselves (110) in
the houses of the laity. And when the persecutors knew that they were
in a certain house [those who were hidden therein] straightway departed
to other houses. [And this state of affairs lasted] until the great
Feast of the Resurrection [A.D. 1296].

CHAPTER XII

KING KAZAN PAYS HONOUR TO MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

Now when the sun had descended into the sign of the
Ram, and
creation was warmed a little, the Catholicus sent one of the monks of
the Cell to the victorious King KAZAN, to the place called MUGHAN, the
winter station of all the Mongol Kings, to bless him and to inform
[him] concerning the events that had happened to him. And when that
monk arrived at the Camp, and he had taken care to see all the Amirs,
they introduced him into the presence of the victorious king, and he
declared unto him in their entirety all the words which Mar Catholicus
had spoken to him saying, "Blessed is thy throne (111), O king, and it
shall stand firm forever, and thy seed shall be surely seated thereon
for ever."And the king asked, "Why did not the Catholicus come to us?"
and the monk replied, "Because of the confused state [of his mind]. He
was hung up, and cruelly beaten and his head touched the earth. Through
the severe pain which hath been roused in him, he was unable to come to
do homage to the king, and it is for this reason that he hath sent me
to pronounce his blessing upon thee, O my lord, the king. But when the
victorious king shall arrive in peace at TABHRIZ, whether the
Catholicus is sick or whether he be well, he will come to salute thee
and do homage to thee."

And God caused these words to find mercy in the eyes
of the king,
and he gave to the Catholicus a Pukdana, according to custom, in which
it was laid down that poll-tax,9
should not be exacted from the Christians (112); that none of them
shall abandon his Faith; that the Catholicus shall live in the state to
which he hath been accustomed; that he shall be treated with the
respect due to his rank; that he shall rule over his Throne; and shall
hold the staff of strength over his dominion [i.e. that he shall wield
his sceptre with vigour and determination]. And he promulgated an Edict
throughout all countries, and addressed it to all the Amirs by their
names, and to the soldiers, ordering them to give back everything which
they had taken from the Catholicus or from the holy old men by force,
and to give back to him what those men of Baghdad and their envoys,
whom we have mentioned above, had taken. Moreover, he allotted and
despatched to the Catholicus five thousand dinars ( £2,500) for
his expenses, saying, "These will serve him as a supply until he cometh
to us."

Because Christ doth not forsake His Church, He
bindeth up the
brokenhearted, He redeemed those who are humble in spirit, He is the
refuge of the poor, and is their Helper (113) in times of tribulation.
God chastiseth in mercy, and in order to possess [the sinner] He maketh
him suffer. His rebuke is for the man who hath understanding, and
teacheth him that he is not a stranger [to God]. And He doth not leave
him that is tempted to be tempted more than his strength [will bear].
And again he envelopeth him with His mercies, and, sustaineth him; and
He gathered him into the fold of life after He hath tried him. God--may
His honour be adored!--turned the heart of the king towards His people,
"for the heart of a king is set in His hands like a fountain of water;
He turneth it about in whatever direction He pleaseth,"(Prov. xxi.1).

And from that day the rays of salvation began to
shine on the whole
Church. In the districts of ARBIL the churches were laid waste long
ago. In TABHRIZ and HAMADAN they were entirely destroyed, and their
foundations had been uprooted from the earth. In MAWSIL (MOSUL) and its
provinces, and in BAGHDAD, the churches had been ransomed at very large
prices and tens of thousands of darics. But the Church which the
Catholicus MAKIKHA (1257-63) built in BAGHDAD (114) by the command of
HULABHU (HULAGU), the victorious king, and TUKOS KHATUN, the believing
queen, and the Cell of the Catholicus were taken, and the palace which
had belonged to the Arab kings. When HULABHU (see Plates VIII, IX) the
father of these kings (i.e. the Mongols) had taken and looted Baghdad
he gave that palace to MAR MAKIKHA, the Catholicus, in order that he
might establish in it services of prayer on behalf of himself and his
seed for ever. Now this was not sufficient, for those who took this
church and the Cell of the Catholicus to set up [mosques upon it], but
they compelled the Christians to eject from it even the bones of the
two Patriarchal Fathers [MAR MAKIKHA and MAR DENHA], and those of the
holy old men, and monks, and believers who had been buried therein. And
these things were carried out by the command of that son of perdition,
that accursed and damned man NAWRUZ, the hater of justice, the enemy of
the truth, and the lover of falsehood.

And when that monk whom Mar Catholicus [had sent to
the king]
returned, and brought with him the Pukdana, [i.e. the royal Edict which
restored to him his authority], and showed him the affection of the
Amirs, and the greatness (115) of the victorious king's goodwill
towards him, the door of the Cell was opened, and the Catholicus took
his seat upon his Throne, and gathered together his scattered
adherents, and brought nigh to him the members of his household who had
betaken themselves afar off. And the Pukdane (Edicts) were read in the
Diwan (judical assembly) and every man brought that which he had taken.
From that sum of money the Catholicus took what was necessary for
travelling to King KAZAN. And he went forth from Maraghah in the month
of Tammuz (July) of that year, which fell in the month of Ramadhan, and
was the year of the Greeks one thousand six hundred and seven (A.D.
1296), to the place which is called UGHAN (or OGHAN).

Two days after his arrival he went into the
presence of
the king with appropriate state and ceremony. And the king burned
incense according to custom and made the Catholicus to sit on his right
hand, and [the attendants] brought wine, and the king took the cup and
presented it to the Catholicus, and also to all the holy men who were
with him. And from that [time] he began [to treat him] with affection.
And in proportion as the king, little [by little], was increasing the
honour which he paid to the Catholicus, the hatred which was in the,
hearts of the enemies [of the Catholicus] increased (116), and they
forged evil plots, and they sent information about everything which
took place to that son of perdition, that accursed man NAWRUZ

CHAPTER XIII

FURTHER PILLAGE AND MURDER IN MARAGHAH

And in the year of the Greeks one thousand six
hundred and eight
(A.D. 1296--97), the victorious king came down to pass the winter in
the city of BAGHDAD, and Mar Catholicus remained in MARAGHAH. And it
fell out that a certain man, who was called by the name of SHENAKH
EL-TAMUR (or SHAING EL-TAIMUR, or SHAKH EL-TAIMUR) came into MARAGHAH,
and he cast about a report that he had with him an Edict ordering that
every one who not abandon Christianity and deny his Faith should be
killed. And he added many threats and magnified the severity of the
Edict, and inserted various [penalties] which had never before been
heard of in the world. Now when the people of the Arabs heard this they
became like savages and they stirred themselves up to fight, and their
hearts became bold (117) and cruel, and in the fierceness of their
strength the whole of their people rushed to the Cell, and plundered
everything which they found [there]. This took place during the Fast of
Lent, on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday) following the Sunday on
which the prayer beginning] "Tau naudhe waneshabbah"(i.e. "come ye, let
us praise and glory") [is said].

And when the story went forth that this impudent
fellow had done
this without any royal command, and had acted solely because of the
evil of his disposition, and the intensity of is wickedness, the Amirs
and the governors who were in MARAGHAH gathered together, and took
counsel, and decided to perform judgement on a following Sunday and to
restore to the Cell the various valuable objects which those impudent
men had carried off from it. Now these objects were of very great
price, among them being the gold seal which the King of Kings MANGU
KHAN [the eldest son of TULUI KHAN and grandson of GENGHIS KHAN] (see
Plate XIX)--May our Lord give rest to his soul, and make his portion to
be with the saints!--had given to the Patriarchal Cell, and that crown
which Mar Papa (the Pope) had given to the Cell, (see p. 58), and
another seal, made of silver, which the deceased King Arghon had given
to Catholicus (see p. 48) (118).

And then [on the following Sunday] the people of the
Arabs were
assembled before the Amirs and Judges, and the rods for the punishment
of the evil doers had been brought [and they began] to beat [them],
straightway with one voice they all uttered loud cries [of protest].
And they took stones in their hands, and, shut their ears, and chased
the Amirs and the governor every man to his house. And every Christian
who fell into their hands they smote and belaboured pitilessly. In the
impetuosity of their attack they came to the Cell, and they pulled down
all the buildings as far as the beams of the of the roof. And they
smashed in with stones the heads of the monks who were in the Cell, and
of the young men who had gone up to the roof to hide themselves. When
one of the disciples saw these things taking place, he hurled [the
stones] back on the Arabs and wounded some of them. Thereupon the Arabs
became more infuriated and one of them went up behind that disciple and
smote him with [his] sword and cut off his head, and threw it down to
the ground. Then the monks who were there cast themselves down [from
the roof], and there were some of them whose bones were broken. And one
of the Christians (119), seeing that the monks had cast themselves down
in order to save their lives, stretched out his hand for the knife, and
smote that monk and killed him. Certain believing men grasped the other
monks and dragged them into [their] houses. And the treasury of the
holy church of MAR GEORGE, which RABBAN SAWMA had built, was broken
open and everything that was in the Cell, the vessels of copper and
iron, the carpets, and the chests of stores, which had escaped a
previous looting, were all taken and carried off at the same time. But
by the looting of those things the church itself was saved and
delivered from pulling down and destruction. Those impudent men had
fully intended to destroy the church, but God in His mercy on that
church prevented them from doing this by means of the objects which
they looted.

And to speak briefly this last looting was so much
worse than the
first looting which took place at the beginning [of the persecution],
that neither the tongue is capable of describing it, nor the pen of the
skilled scribe able to write any account of it]. If God had not shown
mercy (120) and the believing woman QUEEN BURGESIN ARGI (?) had not
hidden the Catholicus and the holy men in her house, and, with the help
of God which supported [her], protected them, all that was left for the
Church to do was to bow her head, and veil her face, for those
turbulent men were determined to make a massacre.

After five days (121) they departed to a place which
is called
SHAKATO, and thence they removed themselves to the mountain which is
called SIYA KUH, until the king returned from BAGHDAD TO HAMADAN. And
in the neighborhood of this city the Catholicus went to him, and when
the king saw him he was sorry for him, and for his broken condition.
And he issued a Pukdana (Edict) and sent a messenger and gave orders
that all the people of the city of Maraghah should be seized, and bound
with fetters, and beaten with stripes until they gave up what they had
robbed from the Cell, and also that they should rebuild the churches
and restore them to their former condition, And after great toil, and
the beatings and tortures which they were made to suffer, they had
produced a very small part of what they had stolen. and the rest
remained [with them].

CHAPTER XIV

REBELLIONS AND FIGHTINGS IN THE FORTRESS OF ARBIL

Now this calamity which overtook the Cell did not
suffice, for the
believing folk of the Fortress of Arbil fell into a disaster which was
even greater than that. For when the natives of the city, [who were]
Arabs, were wishing to overthrow the Church [there], through the agency
of the KARTEWAYE (or KURDAYA, i.e. KURDS), it happened that certain of
the soldiers of the king, who were Christians and were called KAYAJYEH
or KAIJAYE), that is to say, "those who go up into the mountains and
their hills,"shot arrows at them and killed a certain well-known man
(or nobleman). And fighting and hatred followed, and revolt increased,
and even grew, and fury and bitter hatred flourished in both parties,
namely, in both the Christians and the Arabs (122). And they laid
ambushes each party for the other, and they fought pitched battles, and
the bridge of the Fortress was cut. Now this did not happen in the
ordinary course of events, but because that son of perdition NAWRUZ,
the accursed, had gone to KHORASAN, and wished to rebel against the
kingdom and to seize it for himself. And he stationed allies in every
place, and men who belonged to his party in every district, until God
revealed his plans and laid bare his crafty designs. And whilst the
Arabs were pressing in on (i.e. beleaguering) that Fortress, the
brother of that impudent man, and his wives and children were captured,
and the victorious King KAZAN--may his life be preserved!--put them to
death on the Sunday [of the prayer] "Ainau asya"(i.e. "what
physician"), during the Redeeming Fast (i.e. Lent) of the yea of the
Greeks one thousand six hundred and eight (A.D. 1297). And,
straightway, rebellion arose afresh. The highways and roads were cut
(i.e. blocked) by the keepers of the guard who were stationed upon
them, for that son of perdition' NAWRUZ, had escaped, and the troops of
the king went forth to search for him; and were longing to catch him.

And whilst they were in pursuit of him, the
Christians in the
Fortress of ARBIL were to being pushed (i.e. attacked) by those who
were outsiders; they cast up embankments and set up battering rams
(123), and fixed machines for castings (maghenas), and they made fierce
war against the Fortress. And the Metropolitan of ARBIL, whose name was
MAR ABRAHAM, and who was an old and feeble man, was captured, together
with many priests who ministered in the church, and the clerics and
believing men; and some of them were killed and some of them were sold
[as slaves] for very high prices. And the Fortress remained in the
possession of the soldiers, some of them being Mongols in the service
of that Amir who had brought this result about, and others, men
belonging to various tribes of the KARTEWAYE (i.e. Kurds). To state the
matter briefly, men came from every country to plunder the Christians;
and for this reason many murders took place, and carryings off of men
and women into captivity which cannot be described. And even among the
Arabs many died by the mouth (i.e. edge) of the sword. And matters
continued to be thus from the second day of the week (Monday) of the
Prayer of the Ninevites until the Feast of My Lord the Adorable Cross,
of the year which has been mentioned (A.D. 1297). Thus were these
things.

Now the soldiers of the victorious King KAZAN, and a
great Amir,
(124) who was with him, at length confined that son of perdition
[NAWRUZ, the accursed], in one of the fortresses of KHORASAN, and the
men of the fortress acted treacherously in respect of him, and put him
in fetters and delivered him, bound, to those soldiers. And then and
there they cut off his head and sent it to the victorious king. And the
messenger who brought the head arrived and came to the victorious king
on the twenty-fifth day of Abh (August) of this year, when he was in a
place which is called SHAREKHANAH (or SHARAPKHANAH), and is in the
neighbourhood of ALA TAK. And the king had rest from the waves of his
(i.e. NAWRUZ'S) wickedness and from the storm of his cunning desires
and crafty deceits. May his portion be with Satana, his counsellor and
fellow-servant!

Now the accusations (or complaints) against the
Fortress of Arbil
and the believers who were therein increased steadily, and the tumult
because of them waxed strong in the Great Camp. It was said:--"These
men have killed a large number of Arabs. They have revolted against the
Government. Every Ishmaelite (i.e.Hagaraya or Muhammadan) they meet
they kill without pity. Enmity increased, threats were multiplied
(125), until at length they succeeded in making the reports enter the
ears of the victorious king, and they were repeated before his throne.
Now as we have said before [in writing of] these [Mongol] kings, God
gave the Christians favour in the eyes of the king, and he knew that
they were cruelly oppressed. But although he had turned aside from the
way of his fathers, and had inclined to dogma [which maketh] bitter the
soul, he had not changed his good disposition in respect of them.

As his answer to those men who had made him hear the
accusations
against the Fortress when Mar Catholicus set out with a following for
the [Royal] Camp at ALA TAK, through the force of the circumstances
which lay upon him, for there remained not to him one place in which to
lay his head, the victorious king sent to him two of the nobles who
[stood] before him. One of these was called KHWAJA RASHID AD DIN, and
with him was TARMADADH, an Amir. And they said unto him, "The king
commandeth; let Mar Catholicus hear his command!"And Mar Catholicus
replied, "Most certainly, who is there that would not receive the
command of the king--may he live for ever!"And the nobles said, "The
king (126) commandeth, saying "If the king were to make the Christians
evacuate that Fortress, and give them land, and water, and houses, and
protect them from everyone who attempted to injure them, and bring them
here, and release them from every burden of tax and duty, how would
[this] plan work out, and how doth it appear in thy opinion? For the
enmity between these two religions of the ARABS and the SYRIANS hath
increased. If the matter be left in the state in which it now is, very
grievous injuries will overtake the kingdom through it; if these men
are left as they are, many other revolts will spring into existence.
What now doth the Catholicus say to the matter, and the manner in which
it is to be carried out?"

And the Catholicus made answer to them. When he
heard this his eyes
became filled with and his mouth showed forth his suffering, and with a
bitter choking of his voice he said, "I have heard the command of my
lord, the king, and there is no one who can evade it or change the
character thereof. If only I could remember what hath happened to me,
and show it forth the heavens and the earth would be forced to weep. If
it pleaseth you (127), since ye demand of me an answer to declare to
the victorious king, I will speak. I had a Cell in BAGHDAD, and a
church and endowments which were settled upon me; they have been taken
[from me]. The church and the Cell that were in MARAGHAH have been torn
up by their roots and cast down, and everything which was in them hath
been plundered, as ye are well aware. I have escaped being murdered,
and my state is manifest. As for the church and the Cell which were in
TABHRIZ, there remaineth only a flat plot of ground with no building
upon it, and everything that was in them hath been plundered. The
places whereon the Cell and the church stood in the city of Hamadhan it
is wholly impossible to point out. There remain now the Cell and the
church in the Fortress of Arbil and one hundred souls, and do ye wish
to scatter them also and to plunder them? What is the good of life to
me? Let my lord the king command either that I return to the East,
whence I came, or that I go to the country of the PEROGAYA (Franks) and
bring my life to an end there."

(128) When the envoys heard this they were
sorrowful, and their eyes
also were filled with tears. And they rose up straightway and went in
haste to the victorious king, and placed before him these answers, word
for word. And forthwith the king--may he live for ever!--gave the
command, "The Christians shall not be ejected from the Fortress, and if
they are in want of food let it be given to them at the expense of the
Diwan until the soldiers can come down on the approach of winter."

And a certain Amir, who was a hateful man, prevented
[this order
being carried out] for he wrote and acted in another manner. The
matter, however, which was most necessary, was the rescue of the
oppressed men and prisoners, who were shut up in the Fortress. And
after much labour and constant going to and fro an Edict appeared; and
envoys were permitted to go to Arbil and release the men in the
Fortress And the Catholicus sent with them to the Fortress a certain
holy man (a bishop?) that perhaps through his intervention [the envoys]
would be able to open the gates of the Fortress [more easily], and that
the people would devote themselves to concluding an arrangement for
peace.

And the Catholicus said farewell to (129) the envoys
and the holy
men (bishops?) who were with them, and they arrived at Arbil on the
14th day of the month of 'Ilul (September of the year already mentioned
[A.D. 1297]. They tied together the [parts of the] bridge of the
Fortress, and they went in and released the men in the Fortress, and
after much labour and tribulation of spirit, and suffering of the
heart, they made them to be friends with the Arabs. And the expense
incurred by the Catholicus and the Christians who were there was not
small, for it was about ten thousand dinars ( £5,000) in addition
to what was given from the Cell to the Amir who effected this with
them, and this amounted to about fifteen hundred dinars more. The chief
of the Arabs confirmed (i.e. signed or sealed) the agreement on the
oars of the Arabs to keep the peace, and the Metropolitan of the
Christians confirmed (i.e. signed or sealed their agreement with the
Arabs to keep the peace; and one of the Amirs carried away both
documents and exhibited them before the victorious king.

And another Edict was promulgated ordering that the
Fortress should
belong to the Christians who were empowered to demand the restoration
of everything which had gone from them. Thus wickedness ceased, and
peace (or goodwill) increased (130) by the help of God and the
outpouring of His mercies upon His creatures.

But in spite of all this the Arabs did not cease
from evil, and they
found means of attacking and doing harm to the Christians as they have
always done. And a certain man among them was a lord of the Diwan whose
name was NASIR AD-DIN, obtained an Edict from the king ordering the
Christians to pay the poll tax, and to tie girdles round themselves
when they were walking about in the market-places.Now this calamity was
the most difficult of all calamities [to endure]. And many of the
Christians were slain in the "City of Peace"(i.e. BAGHDAD). And without
any delay the gezitha, that is to say, the poll tax, was dragged from
them, and their loins were bound round with girdles; now, to speak the
truth the gezitha was not a tax but absolute plundering. And when the
Christians were walking in the markets, and among the houses, the Arabs
would scoff at them, and revile them and make a mock ol them saying,
"See what ye look like in these girdles, O wretched people!"And there
was nothing which they could do to afflict them they that did not do to
them (131), until at length God had mercy upon them, and lightened all
the burdens that rested upon them, and removed far from them the trials
which had overtaken them and which had surrounded them on all sides.

CHAPTER XV

MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA FLOURISHETH AND FINISHES BUILDING THE MONASTERY
OF MARAGHAH

And that winter the Catholicus went with the
victorious king to
MUGHAN, which was the winter quarters of them [i.e. the Mongols]; from
there he came with them to there TABHRIZ, and passed the summer in the
royal Camp. [This he did thinking that perhaps he might be able
discreetly to supply the things necessary both for the Church and
himself, and also that he might turn back the violence and strength of
the opposition (?) of [his] enemies, and cool their anger. VVhilst
things were thus, the victorious king commanded and a seal was made
like unto that great seal' which had been stolen [from the Catholicus],
and engraved with the same inscription, that was upon it, and a sukur,
that is to say (I32)ashater (i.e. parasol) was given to him. Thus the
sparks of love were beginning to flash forth from him.

And the Catholicus passed the winter of the year of
the Greeks, one
thousand six hundred and ten [A.D. 1299] in the Fortress of ARBIL, for
from the year which we have mentioned that is, one thousand six hundred
and five, he had not seen the people thereof. He rejoiced at the sigh!
of them, and passed the winter happily among them. The joy of the
father in his children increased, and also that of the children in
their father, for they were emerging from labours, that is to say,
trials, and were freeing themselves from a great disaster and from
stark suffering.

And when the winter had passed, the Catholicus set
out in the month
of Nisan (April) for the Royal Camp, and he went to MUGHAN where the
kings passed the summer. And [the king] rejoiced in him greatly and
paid him honour, and commanded that whatever happened, he should enter
MARAGHAH again. And in accordance with the [king's] command he went to
the city [and arrived there] on the Sunday [of the prayer] "haw
dabhithutheh" (i.e. "He who in His being"). And he passed that summer
in [his]Cell, with great content, in MARAGHAH (133).

And in the month of the [first] Teshri, (October) of
the year of the
Greeks, one thousand six hundred and eleven [A.D. 1299], he went down
again with the victorious King Kazan to the countries of Arbil and
MAWSIL (Mosul). Now the object of the victorious king was to conquer
the countries of PALESTINE and SYRIA. And the Catholicus wintered in
the Fortress of ARBIL, and during the whole of that winter, he devoted
himself to getting ready the money for [the building of the monastery
of which he was laying the foundations. And when the victorious king
returned from PALESTINE [and SYRIA], having conquered and broken their
armies, and plundered them, and scattered, and slain and carried of the
inhabitants into captivity--for he hd actually carried out what he had
determined to do10--the
Catholicus went up again with him to ADHORBIJAN. And he began to build
the monastery, and he devoted his whole care and energy to the work
until he completed it.

And in the month of 'Ilul (September) of the year
[A.D. 1300],
KAZAN, the victorious king came to Mar Catholicus at Maraghah, and he
remained with him for three days. And the joy of the Christians waxed
great, and the kin (134) showed great love towards them, for he knew
well that they were simple and guileless, and innocent of wickedness.
And he departed with a joyful heart from the Catholicus, who had
ministered unto him exceedingly well.

And the king turned and went down again to the
countries of ARBIL
and MAWSIL in the winter of the year of the Greeks, one thousand six
hundred and thirteen [read 1612--A.D. 1300-01]. And the Catholicus also
went down with him and accompanied him to a place which was nigh unto
the region of SHIGHAR (SINJAR). Then he went back and passed the winter
in the citadel of ARBIL,until the victorious king returned, when he
again went up with him. And during the going up the KARTEWAYA (KURDS)
made an ambush for Mar Catholicus, and as he was passing on the road,
they sent arrows at him, and an arrow hit one of his fingers and
wounded him slightly. The victorious king was enraged at this and he
swore the full Mongol oath, saying, "I will take vengeance of those
Kurds" (135).

And when the Catholicus arrived at MARAGHAH he went
up to the
monastery of MAR JOHN THE BAPTIST, which he had founded, and he took
with him the monks whom he had gathered together. His intention was to
finish that building, and he said:, "If God hath mercy upon me, and I
am able to finish it and to consecrate it, this would be a great act of
grace on His part towards me."And God--may His honour be
adored!--helped him, and, his object, according as he wished, was
accomplished. And that building was finished with everything that was
beautiful, and the ornamentations thereof were such that words cannot
describe their great excellence.

The buildings were handsome, the doors were things
to be admired,
and its superstructure was raised above on worked slabs (or pillars?),
and its foundations of dressed stones were truly laid. Thus it was, he
made its doors of dressed slabs, ornamented. with designs, and its
stairways were also of dressed stone. What wards can describe its
majesty [adequately]? And the site on which the edifice was built
possesseth great consolation [i.e. charm], and is full of splendour.
The veils [i.e. curtains] that are before the door of the altar, and in
front of the tombs and the sacristy, are most wonderful and marvellous.
They are made of a woven fabric (136), with designs in hollow work, and
have threads of fine gold running through them. Its wall is so high
[that its height] preventeth the attainment of the scaling of it. As
for the water suppIy of the monastery, water flowed through all the
cells of the monks, and carried outside it by means of channels (or
drains) every impurity. Recently a cell for the Patriarch has been
built in the monastery, and the Throne is therein to-day, for the
Patriarch doth not go out therefrom. And the greater number of the
layings on of hands [i.e. ordinations] take place therein, and the
decrees, that is to say, ecclesiastical cannons are confirmed therein.

There too are fixed [i.e. deposited] the
relics of the
saints, whose names we will mention presently and healings descend upon
all those who take refuge in them. And although, strictly speaking the
monastery was built [in the name of] MAR JOHN, the Baptist, there have,
nevertheless been gathered together therein the relics of [many other]
saints, with a care and diligence which surpasses. And these have been
laid up there for the help of believers, and as a refuge for the
afflicted, and the relief of those oppressed with pain, and the
consolation of those who are troubled. The holy shrine, containing
relics (137) are arranged in order and are placed near each other.

The length of the temples (i.e. the two naves
and aisles of
the monastery, together with the altar is, according to those who have
measured them say, sixty cubits (about 100 feet), and the width of the
middle nave is twelve cubits [about 20 feet]. The altar, and the
chamber of the holy of holies, and the treasury are very spacious. The
whole of the outside of the dome of the altar is inlaid with green
glazed (kashani) tiles, and on the top of it is placed a cross. The
names of the saints' relics and portions of whose bodies are preserved
in it are: Of the blessed Mother, my LADY MARY, a small piece of her
head-cloth which the deceased RABBAN SAWMA had brought from the
countries of the PEROGAYE, Franks); MAR JOHN the BAPTIST; the holy
Apostles PETER and PAUL--may their prayers be with the community!; MAR
THOMAS the Apostle; and MAR GEORGE; MAR ADDAI and MAR MARI, the
Apostles, and preachers of the Gospel in the regions of the East; MAR
STEPHEN the Protomartyr; MAR CYRIHACUS, the martyr who was martyred at
TARSUS, A.D. 301], and the Forty Martyrs [who were slain by SAPOR II,
A.D. 356]; MAR SIMON BAR-SABBA'E, martyred by Sapor II at Ledan]; (138)
MAR JOHN of DAILEM; MAR SERGIUS and MAR BACHUS, [martyred by Maximian];
MAR SHALITA, (see p. 88); MAR SABHA the martyr; MAR HANAN 'ISHO; MAR
SAMUEL; MAR JAMES, who was cut in pieces; MAR SELIBHA, MAR
IISHO'-SABHRAN, MAR ELISHA, the tried martyr; the holy daughter of
MA'YO (MANYO); and SHAMONI and her sons [who were slain by ANTIOCHUS
EPIPHANES]. May their prayers help the world, and may it preserve the
inhabited portion of it from every harm!

[And the Catholicus] consecrated the church and set
the stone of its
altar in its place on the day of the holy festival of Mar (i.e.
my.Lord) the Adorable Cross on the 13th day of 'Ilul (September) in the
year of the Greeks one thousand six hundred and twelve (A.D. 1301). And
on the day of its consecration there were gathered together all blessed
believers of Adhorbijan, and they flocked thither bearing votive
offerings and tithes, each one according to his ability, and every man
according to his position and rank. And they rejoiced with exceedingly
great joy. And Mar Catholicus made a great feast, and he gathered
together to it men of every shade of religious belief and opinion. And
he took (139) the cup and presented it to all of them, and made them to
enjoy the feast. And he blessed them even as did SOLOMON the king when
he had completed that great house of God (2 Chron. vi.) and blessed the
people of the Lord.

And the amount of money which the Catholicus spent
on the monastery
before he finished it was four hundred and twenty thousand zuze
[i.e. between £40,000 and £50,000]. And he gave apparel to
the holy men (bishops?) and monks, and architects, that is to say, the
carpenters and the handicraftsmen, and every one had toiled on the
building, to each according to his rank, and according to the service
he had rendered. Behold, services of prayer, and celebrations of the
Eucharist take place therein continually; it is a spectacle (or public
show) for all the Orientals, and a refuge which dispenseth help. The
Catholicus gave to this holy monastery a village called DHABHI, which
lay in the eastern parts of MARAGHAH, and which he had bought for
eleven thousand dinars. He made the village "Wakf," that is to
say, he settled it as a permanent endowment for the monastery. And he
settled other properties upon it, such as gardens, vineyards,
plantations, fields,and other things, so that (140), the income from
them, that is to say, from [the sale of] the crops which they produced,
would sustain the life of the monks and provide food for them, and for
lamps and candles, and defray the cost of the repairs and the upkeep of
that holy place. And he called that holy monastery, "Malka dhe 'Umre,"
i.e. the "King of Monasteries." May he receive [from] our Lord his
reward and may He grant him the wages of his weary toil, namely, the
happiness which is in the kingdom of heaven, and a sojourning with the
saints, the lovers of our Lord Jesus Christ; and may our Lord place on
his right hand every one who hath laboured with Mar Catholicus and been
associated with him in this work! Amen.

CHAPTER XVI

THE LOVE OF KING KAZAN FOR MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, AND HIS DEATH

And after the completion of this monastery, and the
consecration of
it, Mar Catholicus went to TABHRIZ, to the victorious King (141) KAZAN.
And the king welcomed him gladly, and looked on him joyfully, and paid
him honour more than was customary, and magnified him in an unusual
manner. And he asked questions about his building [and the progress of]
his work, and when Mar Catholicus said that it was entirely finished,
the victorious king rejoiced and was glad; and Mar Catholicus blessed
him before those who were reclining there. And the king himself set out
for MUGHAN to pass the winter there, but he commanded Mar Catholicus to
dwell in his monastery throughout the winter, saying, "It is a new
building, and it will be agreeable and convenient for its master [to be
there], because of the great labour [which he hath expended on it]."

And at the return of the year [in 1302?], when the
king came back
from MUGHAN, the Catholicus again went to see him, and to pronounce
blessings upon him; now this meeting was exceptionally joyful [to
each], and the sight [of each other was most grateful to them. The king
set apart for him a seat of honour on his right hand, and gave him many
gifts, that is to say a Paiza (see p. 62) and costly royal apparel, and
he manifested towards the Catholicus the sincere love which cometh from
a very pure heart. And Mar Catholicus thanked him (142), and then
returned to ARBIL in the year of the Greeks, one thousand six hundred
and fourteen [A.D. 1302], that he might go from there to BAGHDAD. Now
it was a long time, in fact a nine years since he had been to that
Great Throne, and the chief reason for his journey thither was the
determination of the victorious king to go there.

He set out from ARBIL on the day of the Friday after
the Festival of
the Nativity of that year (A.D. 1303], arid he entered BAGHDAD on the
night of the holy Epiphany. And he made a festival in DARATH RHOMAYE,
and all the congregation rejoiced in him, and his own gladness was
exceedingly great. And after twenty days he departed from BAGHDAD, and
went to the city of HILLAH (which lieth by the side of Babil (Babylon),
which NEBUCHADNEZZAR, the Chaldean king, built), that he might see King
KAZAN. When the Catholicus arrived there he went to the king on the day
of the "White Festival" [i.e. the Festival of the New Year when men and
women alike wore white apparel], which (143) the Mongols were
celebrating. And the victorious king welcomed him more gladly than
words can say, and he asked him questions and why he had taken the
trouble to visit him; and Mar Catholicus replied to him in appropriate
words.

Now the king had determined to go to Palestine [and
Syria] a second
time, and to subdue and conquer those countries a second time. And when
after some days Mar Catholicus [went to] see the king, so that he might
[obtain permission] to return to BAGHDAD, the king gave him five
splendid vestments of great price, which were [usually] worn by kings,
and he concluded all the matters of business which the Catholicus had
to do with him according to his request. Then the king went to those
countries [of Palestine and Syria], and the Catholicus went to BAGHDAD,
and lodged in Darath Rhomaye. And he dwelt there for the whole of that
winter, and hoped that at the end of the Lenten Fast he might go up
again to ADHORBIJAN, and take up his abode in the monastery which he
had built.

And on the 10th day of the month of Nisan (April) of
that year [A.D.
1303] he departed from Baghdad., the City of the Throne, and on the
13th day of the month of 'Iyar (May) (144) he arrived at the city of
Maraghah, and he rested in peace in the monastery which he had founded.
Later, on the 10th day of the month of Haziran (June), the victorious
king himself came to this monastery, and Mar Catholicus met him and
welcomed him with pomp and ceremony. And as was befitting, he made a
great feast for him and the kings, and the Amirs, and the nobles of his
kingdom. And the king paid him very great honour, and he made his rank
to be higher, than that of everyone else; and he made him great and
excellent promises, and taking off the cloak of his body, he arrayed
him therein, and all the believers rejoiced with an exceeding great
joy.

And the king passed the night in the monastery. And
that night,
whilst he was sleeping, he saw in his dream three angels standing above
him, the apparel of one of them was red, and the two others were clad
in shining green garments. And they spake words of consolation to him,
and gave him reason to hope that the disease in his toes would be
healed. And on the following morning, the king brought out a splendid
cross made of fine gold, wherein (145) rare stones of very great price
were set, and in it was a fragment of the adorable wood of the Cross of
our Vivifier which had been sent to the king as a mark of honour by MAR
PAPA of the Romans, and he gave it as a gift to Mar Catholicus. And the
king related his dream before all those who were seated there, and
confessed (or declared), saying "Through the blessings of this holy
hothouse I have got healing."And he remained there all that day
praising and magnifying Mar Catholicus. Then he set out for that place
wherein he used to pass the summer, that is to say 0ghan. And on the
20th day of Haziran (June) of this year the king--may he live with
victory!--sent to Mar Catholicus, by his own courier, a famous horse,
on which he himself rode, and a rich and splendid robe, with
salutations to Mar Catholicus, and promises of future favours of all
kinds. Later in this year, in the month of Abh, the victorious king
sent to Mar Catholicus vases of crystal, and vases of glazed porcelain (kashani,
in Persian djini) with (146) designs on them in gold. [The
king] had brought handicraftsmen from the city of DARMASUK (DAMASCUS)
and from KASHAN [on the Tehran road]. By the dispatch of these vessels
[the king] showed great love for [MAR CATHOLICUS.].

Any whilst the king remained in the city of TABHRIZ,
Mar Catholicus
went down to pass the winter, according to his wont, in the Fortress of
ABRIL. In the month of the latter Teshri (November), in the year of the
Greeks, one thousand six hundred and fifteen [A.D. 1303], all the
Fathers and the Christian nobles who were there gathered together to
him, and after the great festival of the Resurrection of our Lord [A.
D. 1304], the great Amir, to whom was entrusted the direction of the
affairs of the Government of DIARBAKR, came to visit Mar Catholicus,
who went up with him quietly (or slowly) in great state to the
monastery which he had built. And he arrived there on the night of the
Feast of Pentecost. Five days later there came to him the bitter,
horrible and truly evil report of the death of the victorious King
KAZAN. He died on the Sunday (147) of Pentecost, at the turn of the day
(i.e. towards the evening) on the border of the city of SAHAND [in
ADHORBIJAN]. And all the inhabitants of the countries of his great
dominions mourned for him. His coffin was brought to the city of
TABHRIZ, on the Sunday [of the prayer] "Kul medem sa'ar,"i.e. "He doeth
everything,"and was placed in the great vault which the deceased king
himself had built.

CHAPTER XVII

KING ULJAITO AND MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

And because the great Amirs, who held the steering
oars of the
Government of the kingdom [of the deceased king], ruled firmly, no
rebellion broke out, and no confusion took place in any place
whatsoever. They sent straightway for the brother of the deceased king
on his father's side, who was called ULJAITO (148), who was in the
countries of Khorasan, and they brought him and made him king on the
12th day of the month Tammuz (July) of this year [A.D. 1304]. [Oljaito
was the third son of Arghon and was born in 1281. At birth he was
called Oljai-Buka, and later Kharbande, i.e. the "Muleteer,"which was
changed to"Khudabende,"i.e. "Servant of God."His mother was the
daughter of Prince Saruji, the brother of Queen Dokuz Khatun]. And
because he had been baptized, when he was a child, in the time of his
father, King ARGHON, he used to run in and out often to see Mar
Catholicus with his mother URGAU (ARGAU) Khatun, who was a Christian
queen. And he enjoyed free and friendly intercourse with him, and loved
him with a boundless affection. And the Catholicus rejoiced greatly at
his accession [to the throne], and he thought and said, "This [king]
will honour the congregation more than his father and his brother when
he hath seen and learned the honour in which they held it, and their
love towards it."And he did not perceive that voluntary motions
vanquish and overcome those which are habitual and natural, especially
when they take root and flourish. Now the king had become a Hagaraya
(i.e. Muhammadan) in those regions and he had acquired another kind of
instruction (or education?) which had made him to forget all the things
that appertained to the first (149). And through the numerous
discussions which he had heard there, was found in him a kind of hatred
of the Christians.

And when Mar Catholicus went to him--now he met him
on two
occasions--the king paid him due honour, though not heartily; but he
received him with a little courtesy, which was due to his venerable
position. He gave a mighty hand and a strong arm to the Muhammadans in
everything--in gifts, and Pukdane (Edicts), and honours, and
[permission] to build mosques--and because of this they treated the
churchmen with contempt. And forthwith their wickedness grew strong,
and they came at length to sow (i.e. whisper) in the ears of King
ULJAITO that they should take the monastery which Mar Catholicus had
built, and make the church of the town of TABHRIZ into a mosque, and
that its wakf. that is to say the endowments thereof should become the
property of the mosque. And this proposal was all but carried into
effect, and the evil would certainly have been committed, if God's help
and God's grace had not stirred up the excellent Amir IRINJIN--may
[his] life be preserved! --the uncle of the king, who restrained their
audacity and curtailed their impudence. [Irinjin was the son of Prince
Saruji, and the nephew of Dokuz Khatun; he gave his daughter,
Kutluk-shah to Oljaito in marriage.] Also they wanted to take
possession of the monastery which the Catholicus had built.

And the winter of the year of the Greeks, one
thousand six hundred
and sixteen (150 (A. D. 1304-05) ) Mar Catholicus passed in the town of
Eshnok [in ADHORBIJAN]. And when.there he escaped with the greatest
difficulty from the hands of the rebels, and came to the monastery
which he had built. And he set out from there for the Royal Camp at
0ghan, and went with the king to TABHRIZ, and he struggled to make
prosperous the affairs of the Church, and received [from the king] a
Pukdana (Edict), and returned to the monastery. From there he set out
to pass the winter in the Fortress of ABRIL and as soon as he arrived
there, at the beginning of the year of the Greeks, one thousand six
hundred and seventeen [October, A.D. 1305), he laid the foundation of a
great Cell in the Fortress, and he built it of limestone and mortar,
and he finished it and furnished it with every kind of beautiful thing.
And at the beginning of the month of 'Iyar of that same year [A.D.
1396], he went up to the monastery which he had built and passed the
summer there. When heard that the king had begun to levy the poll-tax
on the Christians, he went again to Oghan, and he met the king, but
gained no advantage therefrom.

And the king began to build a city in the
neighbourhood (151) of the
borders of KAZWAN (KAZWIN), and he finished it and called it
"SULTANIYAH." And he collected there handi-craftsmen from all the
countries of his kingdom, and he adorned it with splendid buildings,
and in a manner which it is impossible to describe.

And since Mar Catholicus was without an income from
any source
whatsoever, and his expenses were very great, he went again to the Cell
which he had built in the Fortress of ABRIL, and he passed there the
winter of the year of the Greeks one thousand six hundred and eighteen
[A. D. 1306-07], and the summer also, and the winter of the year of the
Greeks, one thousand six hundred and nineteen [A.D. 1308]. At the
beginning of the month of 'Iyar he went up to Adhorbijan and visited
the king in the city of UGHAN. And the king paid him the honour which
was usually paid to him.

And the king rode forth to the chase, and he came to
the holy
monastery which Mar Catholicus had built. And the monks went out to
meet him, and they brought him in with pomp and ceremony. And when he
went in to the cell of the director of the monastery, that director
(152) found mercy in his eyes, and he asked him questions about the
Mysteries of the Christians. And the director replied to the king in
noble words and most eloquently, and the king was well pleased with the
same. Then he went into the Cell of the Catholicus, and sat upon the
patriarchal Throne, and he made the monks to come there, and he
rejoiced with them, and gave them five pieces of beautiful and valuable
cloth. Thereupon the director of the monastery mentioned the poll-tax,
and the king promised that he would not again levy it. And he laid no
burden of any kind on the monastery (i.e. his visit cost the monks
nothing].

And when the king had departed on the following day,
the Catholicus
having heard [of his visit] came to the monastery, and he grieved
greatly that he had not been present in the monastery. And he followed
the king, and overtook him by the waters of the river which is called
GAKTO in Mongolian and WAKYAROD in Persian, and the holy men (bishops?)
and the director of the monastery were with him, And the king paid Mar
Catholicus very great honour, and permitted to be written for him, and
for the Christians, the great Pukdana of the Pukdane [an Edict
conferring very great privileges on the holders], ordering (153) that
throughout the whole dominion of his kingdom no man should demand the
poll-tax from the holy men, and the monks, and the elders, and the
deacons. And when he returned to the monastery, he sent after him (the
Catholicus) to TABHRIZ, and he gave him one of his riding mules and a
rich robe of honour. From the time when the king entered the monastery
the fetter which bound his heart was loosed, and God threw mercy into
his heart. And he commander, Catholicus to pass the winter in his
monastery, and he himself went into winter quarters at Ughan; now the
Mongols call the place "Mughan."

And the Catholicus passed both the winter and the
summer of the year
of the Greeks, one thousand six hundred and twenty [A.D. 1308-09] in
the monastery. And the king showed great mercy in the favourable Edicts
which he issued and he allotted to the Catholicus the whole of the
poll-tax of ARBIL, and commanded the poll-tax should never again be
levied on the Christians. And immediately the Catholicus went to the
Fortress of ARBIL in the month of the latter Teshri (November) of the
year of the Greeks, one thousand six hundred and twenty-one [A.D. 1309]
(154), he fell sick on the road of a deadly, disease, but our Lord
healed him, and he went to the Fortress of ABRIL in great state and all
the people of the city came out before him and brought him in with
great honour.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS AT ARBIL

Now because the divine decrees must of necessity be
fulilled, and
these decrees would never be carried out but for the causes (or works)
of the marvellous government of God, He made in olden time in the
mountains certain men who are called "KAYADJAYE,"that it to say, "those
who ascend the height of the mountains,"and who quarrel with each
other. And certain of these men went to the king and made accusations
(155) against their Amir ZAYN AD-DIN BALO, into whose hands was
committed the duty of feeding and paying [an army] of three thousand
men. And the king was wroth with him and shut him up in prison for one
year. And because of him the victorious king sent to the Fortress of
Arbil a certain Arab, who was called NASIR, and who was evil by nature
and of a bitter disposition. It was he who was the cause of the
carrying into effect of that plan of the Arabs, which he began to put
into execution already in the year of the Greeks, one thousand six
hundred and eight [A.D. 1297]. And all the sons of HAGAR (i.e. the
MUHAMMADANS), great and small, high and low, Amirs and soldiers,
scribes and lawyers, governors and councilors made a plan secretly to
take the Fortress of ARBIL from the Christians, and to destroy, its
inhabitants.

It is meet, however, to state the truth,
namely that the
hearts of the inhabitants of the Fortress, and of those who were with
them, had become hard. They had forsaken the way of Christianity; they
had treated wholly with contempt the divine laws, and scoffed at
recluses, and the priests, and robbed each other, and they had broken
through the fences of the laws of our Lord; (156) neither to admonition
nor instruction did there remain a place with them. Hatred had waxed
great among them, envy had seized their hearts, they brought
accusations against each other, and they oppressed and smote, and
persecuted, and defrauded, and plundered. And they formed themselves
into companies and invaded the houses of their chiefs and to speak
briefly, they gave themselves place [i.e. took the opportunity] to
perform wickedness of every kind. And no one let the matter enter his
mind, and no one feared the fierce anger and the punishment [which was
to come].

Although actions such as these are divine, it is
Providence that,
seizing upon the causes, maketh them complete. As, for example, the
cause of the death which God decreed for Adam was the transgression of
a command; it was because He had hardened the heart of Pharaoh that He
could bring punishment, and others like unto them are mentioned as
figures. But the object of Providence [was obvious], from that [which
was said to Pharaoh, "I established thee for this purpose, that I might
show forth my power on thee, and that my Name might be proclaimed in
all the earth"; (157) and in another passage [it is said], "The Lord
hardened the heart of Pharaoh, that he might not know Him, so that He
might show forth His great works and mighty deeds upon the earth"
(Exod. xx.I; iv.17).

These things happened in the hearts of the dwellers
in the mountain
who are called KAYADJAYE. The dwellers in the Fortress of Arbil
hardened [their hearts], and were [therefore] forsaken by divine help,
so that the mighty deeds of Providence might be made known, and a
hidden things of its glorious nature might be learned. Now although
God--may His honour be adored!--knew before He brought man into being,
to what object his nature would incline, in establishing him He
admonished him, according to what His foreknowledge knew and provided.

Now this man NASIR, whom we have mentioned above, as
soon as he had
gone into the Fortress, took up his abode in a tower close to the gate,
and never went forth from it. He caused to be brought up there,
secretly, weapons and munitions of war and soldiers, and he sent a
message to the Camp saying, "These men are Yaghaye, that is to say,
enemies of the king, because their Amir is shut up in prison" (158).
And the more he did this the more the inhabitants of the Fortress were
making manifest [their] wickedness. But as for him there was no way in
which anyone could do him an injury, for, with the exception of a very
few, he had all the people on his side, and the gold of all the
Mashlemanutha (i.e.,} Ishmaelites, or Islam). As for them, there was no
opportunity (?) for one of them to help his fellow, even with a shamuna
(farthing). NASIR possessed the Ahitophelian counsels (see I Chron.
xxvii.33) of all the scribes and of all the chiefs, whilst they (i.e.
the people of Arbil) had no man [to give them counsel], because they
were drunk with wine and had passed beyond [the limits of] their minds
[i.e. had gone mad], either because of the absolute abandonment of them
by God, or because of the evil works which they performed. And they did
not fear the just and righteous judgements of the Lord. And what
happened through this? The envoys of the king were coming and going,
[and they said], "Rise up, and get ye down from the Fortress, 0
Christians."But they had made up their minds absolutely, to refuse to
obey, and to rebel. And in proportion as they acted in this manner, the
people (159) of the Arabs rejoiced and were glad, for they knew well
that their object would be fulfilled and make itself plain."

And when the condition of things grew worse, there
went forth a
royal Edict addressed to the Amir, a man who was called SUTI, who was
at that time in the regions about DIYAR BAKR, and [to] another man who
was called HAJJI DALKANDI, who was a brother of the above-mentioned
Nasir, who had taken up his abode in the Fortress. [And the Edict
ordered] that, "If the KAYADJAYE are not going down from the Fortress,
and if [they will not go], let it be assaulted and reduced by force,
and let the troops of the king be gathered together to fight a pitched
battle."

Now the Catholicus, because of his love for the
kingdom (or
Government), did not believe that this would be done in the Fortress
whilst he was dwelling in it, and he did not think that the Christians
would be treated in this way as long as he was with them. And all [the
Christians] neglected to do what they ought to have done, and they were
too careless to make a journey to Royal Camp, and show [the king] what
had happened to them. And they continued in the sleep of negligence
until there overtook them (160) certain events which they never thought
could possibly take place.

On the 9th, the fourth day of the week (Wednesday)
in the month of
Adhar (March) of that year [A.D. 1310], during the Lenten Fast, the son
of the Amir whom we have mentioned, and three Amirs of thousands
(Chiliarchs) went up to the Catholicus to bring him down, and it was
ordered that if he would not come down with them he was to be put in
prison. On the following day he came down, being forced to do so, and
from the that moment fear and weeping fell on the Fortress; and evil
signs made themselves manifest. And they brought the Catholicus to the
monastery of MAR MICHAEL of TARIL. And the Amir SUTI came to him, and
the soldiers who were with him were from the Amirs of thousands, and
others, and he showed him great affection. In times past he had often
visited the cell, and was a first favorite with Mar Catholicus, and had
been held in high honour by him in the time of the deceased KAZAN. And
he said to the Catholicus, "The Edict [of the king] orders that the
Mountaineers (KAYADJAYE) shall come down from the Fortress, and that
the others shall remain [there]. These (161) will not go forth except
at thy bidding, therefore thou shalt send one of thine own men to
[make] them go down."

On the morning of the following day, which was the
Eve (i.e.
Friday), the Patriarch brought oxen, and lambs, and wine to the house
of the Amir mentioned above, [and he made a feast], and placed the
wine-cup in his hands, according to the custom of the Mongols, and he
mounted him on a good horse in order to confuse his senses. [In other
words the Catholicus bribed the Amir.] And the Arabs who were there,
HAJJI DALKANDI, an the old man (Shekh) Muhammad, who ruled in ARBIL,
and his brother who was called AHMAD, were complaining bitterly against
the Christians, and also against the Catholicus, and saying, "Besides
thyself there is no one who can bring those men down from the Fortress.
"But the emir, thinking only of the bribe which had been given to him
by the Catholicus, paid no heed to them.

Then they agreed to send messengers [to the
Mountaineers] to advise
them to come down. The Catholicus sent one of the holy men who were
with him, and who was called MAR 'ABHD ISHO' (162) Bishop of HANITHA,
and the Amir sent one of the Amirs of thousands, who was called SATI
BAG, to talk to them and bid them come down. And when they went and
talked to them in very gentle words, which were coupled with promises
of benefits, the Mountaineers would neither receive them nor hearken to
them; so the envoys turned back and arrived from them on the Sabbath
(Saturday), the 14th day of the month of Adhar. And immediately the
Amir SUTI heard this, he came to the Catholicus, and held converse with
him, saying, "These are YAJAYE, that is to say, enemies [of the
government]; thou must send a messenger to them O Catholicus, a second
time."And Mar Catholicus himself wrote an exhortation to those men to
go down, and he sent it by the hands of the bishops, MAR ISHO'-SABHRAN,
the Metropolitan, and the aforementioned Mar Abhd-Isho', and the monks
RABBAN DAWID, the anchorite, and RABBAN DENHA, the director of the
monastery of MAR MICHAEL of TARIL. And they departed on the night of
the Sunday of the prayer "Enhu dhe-te'ol"(i..e. "If Thou wilt enter"),
and when the day dawned they went into the Fortress and held converse
with the dwellers therein, and they submitted and undertook to go down.

And when NASIR heard this, (163) he straightway
hoisted the signal
which had been agreed upon between himself and the inhabitants of the
city, namely, that when he hoisted the signal on the roof of the tower
in which he dwelt, they were to rush up to him and set the battle in
array. Now when these wretched men who had been counselled to go down
into the church they saw the swords which flashed and the sharp arrows
that were falling down [upon them], they made haste to leave [the
church] and went with the greatest difficulty to the door of the
Fortress, and they too made war from the fourth hour of the day until
the evening, and the whole night long. Three of the Arabs were killed,
and twelve Christians, and if they (i.e. the Christians) had not hurled
fire under the tower all night long, they would all have been slain to
a man.

And when the Amir SUTI and the soldiers that were
with him heard [of
this] they made haste and went and surrounded the Fortress, and they
carried the Catholicus, who wept, along with them by force. That same
day they went below the Fortress, saying to him as they went, "Do-not
allow them to take part in the fight."On the night of the (164) second
(?) day of the week (Monday) certain men went down from the Fortress,
and God delivered them; but they and the Catholicus, and the clergy who
were with him, [were cast into] prison. And from daybreak or, the
second day of the week (Monday), the Amir SUTI, and those who were with
him, urged MAR Catholicus to send an envoy to them [telling them to let
NASIR go down with everything that he had; and he sent the bishop
ISHO'-SABHRAN and RABBAN DAWID, the anchorite. And when the Arabs saw
them, they killed RABBAN DAWID the anchorite without mercy, and they
smote ISHO'-SABHRAN with swords and staves, but God rescued him from
their hands, and he fled and came [back].

And the evil condition of things became worse,
because punishment
had arrived, and the Arabs and the Mongol troops began to throw up
mounds and to construct machines of various kinds and to wage war
systematically. From the moment when NASIR hoisted that evil signal,
the Christians who were in the city were slain in the streets (or
bazars), and in the market-places of the city. Many of them fled and
went into the houses of the Muslims, but even these were dragged out
from them through informers; and on the second day of the week (165)
(Monday), they died cruel deaths, no mercy [being shown to them]. The
people who belonged to them who were in the prison of the Kadhi, were
brought out and beaten cruelly until they received death. The young
women were stripped of their apparel, and were made to walk about naked
through the streets of the city. And also the women who were with child
were ripped open, and [the soldiers] slew the unborn children, and cast
their bodies before the gate of the Fortress.

And men were in the habit of going to the Amir SUTI,
and saying, "O
Amir, send a messenger, and see how [the Christians] are killing the
Muslims, and casting [their bodies] at the of the Fortress"And he, in
his simplicity believed them, and he gave the order, and the four
churches, which were on the plain were pillaged (or destroyed). Two of
these, that which was the name of ISHO'-SABHRAN, the glorious martyr,
and that which was built in the name of MAN'O, belonged to us. The
church of the JACOBITES, which was built in the name of my LADY MARY,
and the church of the Armenians, were razed to the ground, and also all
the houses and buildings of the Christians, and the Cell (166) of the
Metropolitan Throne.

And the Amir sent through all the country, and
collected men to
fight, and he brought down the KARTEWAYE (KURDS) from the mountains.
And the Christians from all the villages, because they were unable to
go to the city, gave no small amount of money for weapons of iron and
food for the soldiers. And the war waxed strong against the Fortress,
which was attacked on all four of its sides by night and by day. And
many were killed, both those who were below (i.e. the attackers) and
those who were above (i.e.the defenders), and many of the KURDS and
ARABS; but few of the Mongols were slain, because they did not come
near the Fortress, but were content to shoot arrows from a distance.
And the roads were cut to the Christians in that country and everywhere
else, and wherever the people saw them they killed them without pity,
and said, "Ye are from the Fortress,"or "These men are fugitives."And
the stupefaction of death seized every man.

As for the Catholicus, no helper remained to him
against those who
had seized upon him as far as deeds were concerned, and very few even
in the matter of words. In the night season they watched him from near,
and in the daytime (167) from afar; and he did not know what was going
to happen to him. His thoughts were in a tumult, both through fear for
himself and fear for the Fortress. And only with the greatest
difficulty did he find an opportunity to write a letter to the
Metropolitan of ARBIL who, was a fugitive in the village of BETH
SAYYADHE. This man who because he was wroth with the people of the
Fortress, for they had not hearkened unto him, had betaken himself to
BETH SAYYADHE, together with everything else that he had and settled
himself down in that place. [The Catholicus wrote to him], saying,
"What will thy escape profit thee if thou dost not go to the [Royal]
Camp? "And two days later the Amir SUTI sent guards with the
Catholicus, and they brought him to BETH SAYYADHE.

[Thereupon] the Metropolitan set out on the night on
which the
letter reached him, and in four days he arrived in BAGHDAD, together
with the young men who were with him. And he went to the [Royal] Camp,
and made known there what had happened to the Catholicus and the
Christians. Now the Amirs who were in the Camp had already heard of
(168) everything that had happened in full detail, because the Amir
SUTI had sent messengers there to report what was being done by him.
And the Catholicus also wrote a letter [and sent it] by a messenger to
one of the servants of the Cell [saying] what had happened to him; and
that servant went and made it known to the Amirs and the councillors,
and explained the case to them, and also informed them about the
massacre which had taken place. And the hearts of the Amirs who had no
knowledge whatsoever of this event were utterly stupefied, for those
who had committed this deed had held their peace. Following on this
also quickly came the Metropolitan, and he repeated the story before
all the Amirs. And a royal Edict was written and sent by a messenger to
the Amir SUTI, saying, "Thou hast explained to us the matter in this
wise, but the Catholicus in other wise; which of you are we to believe
and hold as true?"Thus the [course of the] evil was restrained
somewhat.

When the Amir SUTI heard of this thing, he was
exceedingly grieved
(169) and became furiously angry. And he sent for the Catholicus and
had him brought to him, [and he said to him], "Hast thou written thus
and thus? "And all the people of the Arabs were shouting abuse at the
Catholicus, and each man was crying out what he wanted [to do] with
him. And the Catholicus said, "I have written nothing, but a certain
Metropolitan belonging to the district went and spake on behalf of his
house and his flock"And they (the Amirs) said, '"Now make these rebels
to come down, according to the royal Edict, and if thou wilt not do
that, write thy declaration that they are Yaghaye (i.e. enemies)"Then
the Catholicus sent to the Metropolitan of MAWSIL (MOSUL), and some of
the young men of the Cell, and exhorted them [to come down], but they
were afraid do so.

Now there were among them certain men who were
really rebels, and
they, fearing to be massacred, were strengthening the others in their
rebellion so that they might not go down, Thereupon the Amir SUTI and
those of his party gained an advantage over the Catholicus, and they
pressed him saying, "Thou must give us thy writing (i.e. certificate)
that those men are YAGHAYE (i.e. enemies), that we may send a messenger
to inform the king."And they seized upon and carried off everything
(179) that he had with him. Some of those men who had come down with
him they killed, some they sold as slaves. And by force they obtained a
certificate from the Catholicus, and the holy men who were with him,
which was worded as they wished.

On that day the Amir sent HAJJI DALKANDI [to the
king]. Now he was a
kinsman of the king and on his arrival he exhibited the matter [i.e.
the certificate of the Catholicus]. And one of the Amirs, who was
called ASAN KUTLOK, rebuked him severely, and reproved his impudence
because he knew the truth, and perceived that the certificate had been
obtained by force; and he wished to smite HAJJI DALKANDI, who removed
himself. And the aforementioned Amir, and all the councillors, went to
the king and explained the matter. And the king issued an Edict
ordering that the men in the Fortress and the Arabs should make peace,
and that on neither side should reprisals be made, and that no man
should fight again. This Edict was promulgated only after many
exertions, and troubles and anxieties on the part of the Metropolitan
and his companions, and it was committed to the care of certain of the
sons of the kingdom (princes?) that they might carry it to ABRIL (171).
And HAJJI DALKANDI went back in disgrace, and his face was covered with
shame. With the Edict there came two of the disciples of the Cell, and
they arrived at ABRIL on the day of the Eve of the Confessors (i.e. the
Friday after Easter). And straightway they tied (i.e. rejoined) the
bridge which had been burnt, and they made peace, and many came down
from the Fortress to the plain.

Now, as has been already said, the Muhammadans gave
to NASIR, and to
his brother, as much gold as they wished to expend in bribes, and thus
they were able to satisfy the cupidity of the messengers who had
brought the Edict; and they suggested to them to go up into the
Fortress. And when they had gone up no man spread a cushion for them to
sit upon, and they were not offered food, not even a crust of bread,
and no man gave them any money, not even a shamuna (i.e. farthing).
Then those messengers repented concerning the peace, forsooth! which
they had made, and they reverted to their evil and bitter disposition.
And they wished to inflict some injury on the young men of the Cell who
were with them, but one of them fled from the them secretly by the door
of the Fortress to the village of BATH (172) and they pursued him but
he was not to be found. Then they seized his companion and put him
under restraint. And the messengers [of the king] pursued [the other]
and came to the village of BETH SAYYADHE, and they brought back the
Catholicus, and repeated the words, "These men will not come down
except at thy word; come, hearken to the Edict."

And when he (the Catholicus) arrived at ARBIL, all
the people
gathered together to SUTI, and began to use violent language towards
the Catholicus; but he, because of the great reliance which he placed
in the Government, made answer to them in bold words. Then the
Catholicus sent a message by the Amir SUTI, and ordered the men in the
Fortress a second time to come down. And they were to swear by the
Gospel that they would do no harm to NASIR, and he also was to swear
[to do no harm] to them, and thus there would be peace [between them].
And many came down and swore that they would do him no harm, and that
they would be subservient to him according as he wished. And it being
ascertained that of a surety he had gone up with three hundred men, the
gate [of the Fortress] was shut, because their hearts were full of
guile. When SUTI saw that it was thus, he seized those who had come
down and slew them.

And the companion of the young man of the Cell who
had fled (173)
was questioned closely about his fellow-disciple, and beaten severely;
only with the greatest difficulty did the Catholicus save his life.
Then they seized the horses and mules of the Cell, and everything which
the young men and the holy men had who came with the Catholicus, and
they carried off even their clothes. And after this they said with
deceit to the Catholicus, "We will take thee up to the street (or
market) below the Fortress, and bring the chief men of the city to thee
there, so that no man may quarrel again or be stirred up to make war
until we can inform the victorious king." The Catholicus in his
simplicity agreed, and went up into the Fortress, but he did not know
of the trap which the Muslims had made (i.e. laid) to kill him.

On that same day there came to the Amir SUTI a
messenger from his
houses (i.e. home), who said, "The soldiers of the PALESTINIANS have
invaded [thy] domains, and if thou dost delay in coming peradventure
even thy house (i.e. wife and family will be carried off into
captivity." And forthwith [he and] all the soldiers who were with him
set out, although he was very ill and suffering from a serious
sickness. And at the foot of the Fortress there remained only the KURDS
and the natives of the city. On the following day war broke out (174)
again, and on both sides massacres took place. The roads were cut, and
there was none who went out or went in, and no one who carried out or
took in news. Famine waxed strong in the Fortress. And every one who
went out either to flee or to fetch in food for his house, was killed
without mercy. Catholicus, and the three clerics who were with him, and
the young men who remained with him, were imprisoned in the Fortress
without a covering, without a cushion to lie on, without sustenance and
without food. And the punishment became more severe, ruin increased
terror waxed strong, and there remained neither a helper, nor a place
of refuge, nor any one who was able to utter a word which would help
[them].

As for those messengers, they returned to Camp with
HAJJI DALKANDl,
and they explained to the king that [the people in the Fortress] were
enemies, that the Catholicus stirred them to revolt, that he had given
a bribe and gone up into the Fortress, and had opened the places of
treasure, and distributed gold, and had produced for them stores of
wheat, and weapons of war and ropes and machines for fighting, and had
strengthened their intention to carry on the war (175).

Thereupon evil ruled supreme in the hearts of the
king and his
nobles, and again Edicts were promulgated, thirteen in number, and
addressed to all the Amirs, by name, to each of the Amirs of the KURDS
by name, to each of the four Amirs of the King of the Mongols by name,
and one to the whole country of ARBIL. [In these it was ordered] that
if any man sendeth up food to the Fortress, or giveth it to the men
there, his village shall be looted and [his people] slain, and any
estate belonging to.him in the district shall be taken from him, and
shall become the property of the king absolutely; and it was ordered
that [the Amirs] were to prosecute the war with the armour of strength,
and to bring it to a triumphant end for the sake of the Ishrnaelite
Faith.

And [the king] sent a separate Edict addressed to
the Catholicus by
name, in which it was set forth the following: "We and our fathers have
paid thee honour so that thou shouldst pray for us, and give us thy
blessing: but now that thou hast acted otherwise, know thou that that
which is coming upon thee is due to thyself and not to us."And they
handed the Edicts over to one of the men who were at the Door of the
Kingdom (i.e. the palace or Camp), who was called TOGHAIN and to HAJJI
(176) DALKANDI, both being in very truth, enemies of all Christendom,
that they might go to ARBIL and work their will.

Now the Metropolitan of ARBIL remained in the Camp
for three days
after those messengers had been sent, with the two young men of the
Cell, to make peace. And he pondered, saying, "If the natives of the
Fortress and the Arabs make peace, there is nothing to be gained
staying in the Camp, but if they go on fighting, it is impossible for
me to speak without the advice of the Catholicus."And straightway he
rose up and came in haste to the village BETH SAYYADHE, but on his
arrival he found that the Catholicus had been carried off that very
day, together with the holy men who were with him, even as has been
shown above, and had been imprisoned in the Fortress. And all the
Christians, were in a state of acute suffering, and they grieved
sorely, their grief being from the heart, and not on the eyebrows and
eyelids as is the case with certain people. And it dissolved the flesh
and rent asunder (177) the bones, because they did not know what was
going to happen to them at the hands of the Arabs, and whether they
would be delivered from this persecution or not. And they were like
those who have suffered shipwreck, and are being buffeted by waves and
tempests, for they were afraid of sinking through the destruction of
the persecution.

Now the aforementioned Metropolitan was not able to
endure [this
uncertainty]. He thought that he would go back to the Camp, but was in
doubt about it, because for one thing the roads were cut, and he had no
companions of any kind with him, and there would remain no opportunity
of taking counsel with the Catholicus. On the other hand, if he dwelt
in the Cell, whilst the Catholicus and the holy men were suffering
affliction and tribulation, and the Christians being put to the
torture, he would be condemned by the canon of truth and the law of
Christ, which saith, "Whether it be shepherd or whether it be friend,
it is meet for him to lay down his life, and to give himself to death,
and to think scorn of his life, and to bear tortures of all kinds for
the love of Christ."(Cf. I John iii.16.) And he became emboldened, and
took with him the young men of the Cell (178), who had fled and were in
hiding, and they went forth from the village of BETH SAYYADHE in the
evening of the sixth day of the month 'IYAR (May) of that year [A.D.
1310]. And they marched all night and all day long, over mountains, and
across plains, and hills, and barren rocks, being in fear and terror of
ambushes by the enemy, without any place in which to shelter, and with
not enough food to satisfy [them]. And by the help of God they arrived
in the city of HALMADHAN in ten days, for they had heard that the king
was there.

And when they had gone into the city [they found
that] the
victorious king had departed that day, and had gone to the royal city
of the Mongols. On the following day the Metropolitan and the young men
departed, and went to Sultaniyah and they heard [there] that those
Edicts had been given to the two men who have been mentioned above,
namely TOGHAN and HAJJI DALKANDI, and that they were preparing to set
out and go to ARBIL. On hearing [this] their hands dropped helplessly,
their knees tottered, and their eyes dripped with tears over the
breaking (179 up of the Church, and what had happened to her children.
And they took counsel with certain men who were friends of the
Catholicus, and certain churchmen, as to what they should do And answer
was made to them, saying, "If ye hesitate to spend your own moneys, and
those of the Cell, the Catholicus will perish and ye yourselves also,
and the churches will be pillaged, and also the Wakf (i.e. endowments)
of the Christians will disappear because of the Catholicus."

Then straightway the Metropolitan took with him a
certain sum of
money, and he went to one of the Amirs, who was a near kinsman of the
king. And they took him into the presence of the Amir, who treated him
with honour, and listened to his speech about the Catholicus and also
about the Christians. And the Amir took from him a copy, written by the
hand of the Metropolitan, of everything that he had said, and showed it
to the [other] Amirs and to the king, victorious in God!, as will be
shown afterwards. And the Amir delivered him over to three men who were
close friends of his, so that they might take him to each one of the
Amirs and Wazirs, who [stand] before the king, that he might say with
his mouth (180) what he had written. And those men brought him to an
Amir who was called ASAN (HASAN (?)) KUTLOK, and to Khawaja SAID
AD-DIN, the chief of the scribes, and to the Wazir Khwaja RASCHID
AD-DIN.

And the Metropolitan spake boldly the following
address: "Mar
Catholicus saluteth you, saying. Ye know, O Amirs, that it is this day
five and thirty years since I came from the East; and that I have been
made to sit on this Throne of the East by the Will of God; and that I
have served and blessed seven kings in all long suffering, and in the
fear of God, and especially the father of the present victorious king,
the deceased ARGHON, and his mother the believing Queen URGHO (sic)
KHATON. I have deceived no man. I have coveted none of the property of
the Government, and if certain gifts have been bestowed upon me by them
(i,e. the kings), I have spent them again on their behalf (181).
Although I was a young man once, I am now an old man; and I have no
wife, no children, no relatives, and no kinsfolk. Am I likely to rebel
against the king for the sake of the love of the world? Or shall I
think of snatching away from him anything that is his? Why then should
the words which mine enemies [speak] against me be believed? Moreover,
I have never experienced any evil thing from the present victorious
king in God, and God forbid [that I should]! But even supposing that it
could happen and that he wrought evil upon me--which God forbid! I am
commanded by the Holy Gospel, the Book which I confess, to return good
for evil, for it saith, 'Pray for your enemies, and bless him that
curseth you, and do what is good to him that hateth you,' (Matt. v.
44). And it is impossible for me to abandon that which I have been
commanded by God, through Christ, for transgression of the command
maketh a man, whoever he may be, a stranger to Him that laid down the
command. I beseech you. If the king is convinced in his heart that I
have committed evil, let him bring me (182) to the Door of the Kingdom
and inform me accurately what I have done; and then, supposing I
deserve death, he will be guiltless of my blood. But let him not leave
me in the hands of my enemies."This was the speech of the Catholicus.

[And the Metropolitan spake saying]: "All Christians
who are in the
Fortress say, 'We are not rebels against the victorious king. But are
terribly afraid of our enemies the KURDS and the ARABS, who kill us
unsparingly; and we have no one who will have pity upon us, and will
make known to the king the state of affliction in which we live. We are
the servants of the king and subject unto him, and at all times we pay
the tribute and taxes at which we are assessed. Now if the king
commandeth us to bring down these KAYADJAYE, on whom the king's heart
rests, have we strength enough? But if he commandeth us ourselves to
come down from the Fortress, let him send to us one who will deliver us
from the hands of these tyrants, and let him [then] command us to go
whithersoever he wisheth. We do not dwell here because of the
pleasantness of the place but because of our great fear (183) of the
PALESTINIANS and the KURDS. Behold, our sons and our daughters have
been carried off into captivity, and the greater number of [our] men
have been slain. And, O Amirs, all of you are well acquainted with
these [facts], and I, the Metropolitan, your servant, pledge myself by
what I have said in the document which I have written and given [to
you]."

Then the Amirs accepted the statement, and showed it
to the
victorious and merciful king. And the king commanded that the Amir of
the Amirs DJOPAN should know the matter, and should bring the
Metropolitan to him that he might hold converse with him. And when they
had brought him he spake all the things which have been recounted
[above] and added, "It is through thee that all these things have been
done to us."Now some bond existed between him and the Amir of the
KAYADJAE-, who was called BALU. And he received the statement
unhesitatingly, and stopped the journey of HAJJI DALKANDI to Arbil, and
made promises of good things (184) to come. And he selected men to go
as envoys besides those who had been first [chosen].

Notwithstanding these things, and not to make
[our]
narrative too long, HAJJI DALKANDI neither slumbered nor slept, and he
gave no sleep to his eyes, and all the people of the Arabs were with
him. And they gave huge bribes to the Amirs, and the nobles, and the
small men, and the soldiers, and that proverb which says, "The bribe
blindeth the eyes of the wise in judgement "(Eccles. xx.1) was
fulfilled, and they went back on the agreement and conditions arranged.
The Metropolitan was seized secretly and was handed over to TOGHAN, so
that he might go and bring down the Catholicus and the Christians from
the Fortress, and if he did not he was to be slain without pity. And
they brought him by night outside the city to a mountain which was
close by, and no man whatsoever had any knowledge of him. The suffering
of all the Christians, of every sect, who were gathered together there
in the city, waxed sore, and all the young men of the Cell fled and
were scattered. And there remained none, (185) to help them or to care
for them except the adorable mercy of God, who worketh according to His
grace, and provideth according to his mercy.

Now the Metropolitan had a younger brother, and. he
fled and went to
the Amir DJOPAN--may his life be preserved!-and he showed him what had
been done, saying, "The servant of the Amir of the Amirs, the
Metropolitan, who came to him yesterday on account of the Fortress of
ARBIL, hath by guile and force been carried off to ARBIL."And the Amir
was exceedingly angry, and he sent a messenger and brought back the
Metropolitan from out of the hands of the accursed ones. And he brought
him into the presence of the victorious king, sand repeated to him the
statements which the Metropolitan had made concerning the Catholicus
and the Christians. And the king commanded that the Catholicus should
be brought to the Camp, and that the Christians should come down from
the Fortress, and that no harm should be done to them. And the king had
TODJAIN (sic) brought and gave him orders about these matters, and also
commanded him to go to ARBIL.

And the great Amir of the Amirs, the head of the
Diwan, DJOPAN, took
the Metropolitan (186) to his house. And he wrote for him many letters
to all the Amirs of the Mongols who had gone to reduce the Fortress,
and to the Amir GAIDJAK, a son-in-law11
of the deceased king Hulagu, the father of all the Mongol kings, asking
them to bring down the Catholicus with suitable honour, according to
the royal Edict, and also to let the Christians come down unharmed. And
he delivered it to the enemy, saying, "If any man streteheth out his
hand against the Christians, thou shalt not bring them down."And he
sent away the Metropolitan with due honour, and handed him over to the
royal messenger, saying, "If the ARABS and KURDS will not obey this,
tarry with the Catholicus and the Christians, and send me a message,
and let me know."

And the Metropolitan and the messenger came first of
all to the Amir
GAIJAK and showed him the decree of DJOPAN, the Amir of Amirs, and
GAIJAK and his wife(1) rejoiced in the deliverance of the Catholicus
and the Christians. And the Amir GAIDJAK sent one hundred of his Mongol
horsemen, (187) besides those who had already gone to the Fortress, to
assist in this operation, and he also wrote to eight hundred Kurdish
foot-soldiers, over whom he ruled, to bring down the Catholicus. Now
three days before the arrival of the Metropolitan and the messenger who
was with him, TODJAIN (sic) arrived, and he sent a messenger to
the Catholicus, and showed him the command that he was to come down.
And the Catholicus without any hesitation came down, and the holy men
and the priests who were with him on the day of the Eve (i.e. Friday)
on the sixth and twentieth day of the month of HAZIRAN (June) [A.D.
1310]. And [thus] he heard (i.e. obeyed) the Edict.

And TODJAIN persuaded him to go up again to the
Fortress and bring
down the Christians. In the simplicity of his heart the Catholicus went
up, and commanded them to come down, and those wretched folk hearkened
[i.e. were obedient] in [their] simplicity to the command of the King
and the Father (i.e. Catholicus). And they went down at daybreak on the
Sabbath, with their sons, and daughters, and wives, one hundred and
fifty men more or less, besides women and children, without any weapon,
and without a sword, and without a knife. And when the wicked people of
the Arabs saw that they had come down, they were filled with fierce
passion, (188) and worked themselves up into a rage, and they drew
their swords, and slew them, from the greatest of them to the least,
without pity and without fear. And the women and children they carried
into captivity. And the Arabs took as their excuse, "They shot arrows
at us from the Fortress."But all this was only that they might make the
Catholicus afraid to go down, and that the accusation which had been
made against him before the king might be held by the king to be true,
and that peradventure he might be wroth, and command that the
Catholicus and all the Christians should be massacred.

Then the Catholicus, with his hope in Christ, with
weeping and
sighs, and bitterness of soul came to go down. He held the sword in
contempt thinking within himself, "If I die of hunger in the Fortress
the name of rebel will go forth concerning me, and that would be an
evil thing; it is far better for me to obey to the death. I will go
down. If my Lord saveth me, it will be a glorious victory for me; and
if He doth not, I am ready to accept the crown of martyrdom for the
sake of the name of Christ."And the Christians fell down at his feet
weeping and saying, "We will not let thee go down"(189) and thus also
[spake] the holy men (i.e. bishops who were with him. And the
Catholicus made answer, saying, "There is nothing else for me to do
except to go down, but I do not urge anyone whatsoever to go down with
me; but the man who wisheth to be a participator in my suffering I will
not prevent from doing so."And he said farewell to them.

And the three bishops who were with him clave to
him, and the young
men of the Cell and certain monks and priests. And they went down in
(or by) the wall, treading, as they went upon those who had been killed
and butchered, and who without offence had been hacked in pieces. And
the Catholicus himself saw his sons with their bodies ripped open, and
their entrails dragging loose upon the ground, and there was none to
bury them or to wrap them up for the grave. He had trusted in the word
of TODJAIN (sic) and thought that he was a friend, whereas in truth he
was a false friend.

And then, with [the words of] the prophet in his
heart, he said, "I
cried to my friends, and they have deceived me. My priests and my
elders have come to an end in my midst. They sought food for themselves
that they might have their souls (or lives), and they are not to be
found. See, O Lord, that I am sorely afflicted, and my bowels are
troubled. My heart hath turned back (190) within me, because I have
complained bitterly. Outside the sword hath destroyed, and death him
that was in the house. Hearken for I am groaning, and there is none to
console me. All mine enemies have heard of my calamity, and they have
rejoiced because it is Thou who hast prepared it for me. Bring the day
that Thou hast called, and they shall become ever as I am. And all the
wickedness of the HAGARAYA (i.e. Muhammadans) shall come before Thee.
Trouble Thou them with the trouble with which Thou hast, because of my
sins, troubled me, and which Thou hast shown, through me, to my
children, and those who are precious to me. And because my groanings
are many and my heart is sick." [Lam. i. 19-22; but the Syriac text is;
defective].

What next? TODJAIN (sic) came before the
Catholicus, laughing
like a man who had done nothing, and he brought him to his tent, and
paid him honour, and presented the cup to him kneeling on his knees.
And the Catholicus said unto him, "Is this the form which thy promises
take? And is this the way in which the royal Edict which thou didst
read to me yesterday is carried out? In that it was commanded that
every man who went down was not to be harmed, and that not even the
blood of his nose was to be made to flow."

TODJAIN replied, "They shot arrows from the
Fortress, and wounded
two men (191) and they are dead."And the Catholicus said, "Those who
shot the arrows ought to have been killed, and not those who obeyed the
royal Edict and came down"; and TODJAIN held his peace and answered
never a word.

Now although the accursed peoples of the Arabs had
taken counsel in
order to destroy the Catholicus, TODJAIN and NASIR, the brother [HAJJI]
DALKANDI pretended that they knew nothing about it, so that [their
ignorance] might be for them an excuse. But the Lord hath pleasure in
His chosen ones, and He sendeth to them deliverance whence they know
not, and with out their perceiving how [it cometh]. Now the
Metropolitan pondered in his mind, and said to the Amir GAIDJAK, "O
Amir, thou knowest well what manner of man this TODJAIN is. He hath
arranged for us to go to Arbil, but I am afraid that he will work
[some] wickedness before we arrive [there]. It will be a good thing if
the Amir will send [on in advance] one of his own men, and one of the
companions of the messenger who is with me."And this the Amir did
without any delay (or hesitation), and he sent on one of his own men,
and one of the men who were with the messenger. And [they] arrived on
the day of the Sabbath mentioned above, at the turn of the day (i.e. in
the evening), after the wretched people had been massacred (192). And
they came and saluted the Catholicus and TODJAIN, and they showed him
the copy of the Edict of the king which the Amir of the Amirs, had
written on the subject of the Catholicus. And when TODJAIN and NASIR
heard it the light of the face of TODJAIN became clouded, and the face
of NASIR became green (or yellow), and they began whispering to each
other. There remained to them no means [of exculpation], for the men
who had come had seen the Catholicus. And when the darkness fell NASIR
and TODJAIN rode with him (the messenger?) a mile. And he went to the
village of AMKABHA [near Arbil].

And the Metropolitan, and the messenger who was with
him, arrived on
the morning of Sunday, the seven and twentieth day of the month of
Haziran (June) and they saw what had happened; and they were sorely
grieved, and their suffering was great, but they were somewhat relieved
that the Catholicus and the clergy who were with him were saved. And
straightway they went to the Catholicus, and showed him the
instructions of the great Amir, and the character of the royal Edict
concerning him; and the Catholicus rejoiced and blessed them and the
Amir.

And in the morning of the following day the
messenger went to
TODJAIN and asked permission to go up to the Fortress, but TODJAIN
would not permit him [saying], "These (193) men, who are YAGHAYE [i.e.
enemies, or rebels] would kill thee."The messenger said, "Whether they
kill me or leave me [alive], I am going up to them."And when he went up
TODJAIN would not let any food or drink whatsoever go up with him
[saying], "Thou hast come to save the Christians, who are haters of our
Confession (i.e. Faith), and are also enemies of our people. And since
the Christians do not obey the royal Edicts, we will not obey the
command of thy Amir."The messenger, however, paid no heed to him, and
he went up to the Fortress, and showed [the Christians] the decree of
the Amir; and they agreed to go down, and all were obedient. And the
messenger came down in the evening, and he brought down three men with
him; one of these they (i.e. the Arabs) snatched from his hands and
slew, and the other two they carried off as prisoners. The messenger
brought with him the keys of the Fortress, which he delivered to
TODJAIN, and then he came to the Catholicus sadly, and they took
counsel together as to what he should do.

[And the messenger said], "Those who are at the foot
of the Fortress
are many and powerful. In the Fortress there is not food enough for a
single day, and they stopped me from (194) taking anything up. And if I
bring them down the Arabs will seize them and massacre them. I have no
one here to help me, and what to do I know not. But I can gather
together the men who have come with me, and the one hundred horsemen of
the Amir GAIDJAK. They can bring down the women and children first of
all, and carry them into the villages. And as for the men who can
fight, they, and I, and the men who are with me can pass away and make
our escape in the night. And if any man putteth out his hand against
us, we can put out [our hands also]." And the Catholicus said, "Thou
knowest [best what to do]; according as God giveth thee [knowledge]
that do."

On the third day of the week (Tuesday) the messenger
went up to the
Christians, and he gathered them together about him and held converse
with them; and the greater number of them hearkened to his counsel,
but, as the proverb saith, "Out of the bone cometh the worm."12 Now certain of
the people of
the Fortress had long acted deceitfully, and had made themselves
confederates of NASIR AD-DIN. And every day they sent messengers to
him, and made him acquainted with everything that took place in the
Fortress. And when these men saw that the greater number had decided to
(195) go down, they went and informed NASIR. And straightway he wrote
[saying], "The dwellers in the Fortress, with the exception of the
Mountaineers [TURAYE] shall give nothing to any man, and they shall not
come down from the Fortress, but they shall make their hearts happy.
The Mountaineers shall give the messengers money for the way, and, if
they wish, they may come down."At this decision the people in the
Fortress broke up into two parties, and some of them went down to him
(i.e. NASIR), both they and their houses (i.e. families); and they were
unharmed, and were allowed to depart, and they came to the village of
AMKABHA. And after one day they (i.e. the Arabs) came and took them
away from that place, and they were massacred.

From that time onward there remained in the Fortress
no chief, no
governor, no counsellor, and no man who knew [affairs]. The messenger
remained by himself in the Cell of the Catholicus, but finally he went
down, and left them without a helper in bitter weeping and anguished
groanings. Alas for that hour full of injury! Alas for that season of
affliction which brought forth tribulations! Supposing they dwelt
[there]--no strength remained in any man even to draw water, and who
was there to do the fighting? Famine (or hunger) vanquished them
completely! The, wheat was (196) already finished, and was sold at
eight zuze the litya (i.e. pound). As for salt, who could find any?
They had already finished the asses, the dogs, and the ferrets, and no
old leather objects were left. They filled themselves with the husks of
the seed of the cotton plant ('mar-kubha). Widows stretched out their
hands [helplessly] and wept, and there was none to bind up what was
broken. And there was absolutely no one to bury the dead. Who was there
who had strength enough to dig a grave? Who was there who could show
pity and affection? Who was there to give alms? Orphans died on the
dung heaps. Others fell down [dead] in their houses and dried up, and
others hurled themselves down from the wall, and those who were below
received them on their swords, and hacked them in pieces.

Alas for the men of honour whom the Lord hath
spurned! Alas for the
men of honour whom the Lord hath rejected! Alas for the nation for whom
there remaineth none to show pity, and none to extend help to it! See,
O ye who hear, how violent is the punishment of our Lord of those who
do not turn back (i.e. repent)! How cruel is Thy rod, O our God! How
injurious is Thy stroke, O Thou who careth for us! (197). How cruel are
Thy beatings, O Thou who bindest us up! Thou hast turned Thy face
backwards, and the crown of their heads hath fallen, and their
rejoicings have been turned back into sorrow (Lam. v. 15,16). They have
wept by day and by night, their tears have furrowed their cheeks, and
among all their friends there is not one to offer consolation (Ibid. 1,
2). They all heave sighs and demand bread (Ibid. i.11). Their eyes have
become darkened through tears, their bowels are in a turmoil, and their
honour has been turned back on the ground, through the breaking of
their Fortress. Children and, babes say to their mothers, "Where is the
bread? Where is the oil?"And they collapse before them, like the slain
(Ibid. ii.11,12) whilst asking for bread; and there is none to break it
and give it to them.

Behold, those who once fed sumptuously now lie in
the streets; and
behold, those who were reared in purple apparel, now lie down on the
dung heaps (Ibid. iv. 4, 5). Their visages are blacker than ashes, and
they cannot be recognized. Their skins have shrunk on their bones, and
have dried up, and become like wood. Far happier are those who have
been slain with the sword than those who have been slain by hunger. The
women eat their own fruit, and loving hands cook their children (198)
who become their food (Ibid. iv. 8-10). Children and old men lie
together on the ground, and virgins and young men have suffered
disgrace. The men have been butchered, and the Lord hath not had pity
on them (Ibid. ii. 21); and arrows have penetrated their kidneys. And
they have become a laughing stock among all the nations (Ibid. iii. 13,
14), for the Lord hath fulfilled His wrath, and hath poured out the
wrath of His anger (Ibid. 10, 11), because those who have observed for
them (the bishops) have observed vainly (Ibid. iv. 16). They cry out
with the Prophet [Jeremiah] saying, "Our sins you have roused
themselves up against us, our strength hath become sick (or weak), for
the Lord hath handed us over into the hand of one against whom we can
do nothing (Ibid. i.14); righteous, is the Lord against Whom we have
rebelled."

Hear, O all ye nations, and look on our affliction.
Our virgins and
young men have gone into captivity (Ibid. i.18), and our strong young
men and men of war have been slain. What are we to say? That our
priests have led us astray, and have not laid bare before us our sins?
(Ibid. ii.14). God forbid! They exhorted, and we did not hearken; they
rebuked us, and we did not incline our ears. We despised them, and
showed no favour to their persons. We have shown no affection to our
old men, we have oppressed the widows, and we have persecuted the poor
and needy. Our iniquity is greater (199) than that of JERUSALEM, and
the wickedness which is in our days surpasseth that [of the days] of
NOAH. Because of this the Lord hath performed that which He meditated,
and He hath fulfilled His word according to what He commanded in the
days of old. He hath swept us away pitilessly, and hath girded us about
with enemies, and hath raised up the horn of our oppressors (Ibid.
ii.17 ). All our enemies have opened their mouths against us, they have
hissed and gnashed their teeth at us. They have sold our children into
a far country, they have defiled our virgins before us, and they have
mocked our women before our very eyes (Ibid. v.11)saying, "We will
swallow you up. This is the day which we expected, and we have found
it, and seen it " (Ibid. ii. 16).

And the people of the Arabs went up to the Fortress
with TODJAIN and
NASIR on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday), the first day of
Tammuz (July), in the year of the Greeks, one thousand six hundred and
twenty-one [A.D. 1310], and they conquered it. And they slew everyone
they found in it, and spared none, and everyone they saw they carried
off into captivity; and they looted the treasures, and pillaged what
was laid up there. And those who remained there of the TURAYE KAYADJAYE
(i.e. the Mountaineers) they (200) hurled from the top of the wall, and
those who were down below received them on their swords until they had
made an end of all of them. They sold [some of] the women and virgins,
and they gave [the others] to everyone who came to them, and made gifts
of them. In short, they brought into daylight all the evil that was
hidden in their hearts. And we also, with that same Prophet say, "Exult
ye, O men of Arbil, for the cup hath come unto you, and Ye shall be
confounded and broken with troubles (Ibid. iv. 21), and there is none
to save you. But the Lord will be mindful of what hath happened to His
people, and how His inheritance hath been plundered (Ibid. v. 1). The
Lord is good to him that awaiteth Him, and to the soul that seeketh Him
(Ibid. iii. 25). He will return reward, according to the work of your
hands. And He will give to you sorrow of heart, and His stroke shall
follow after you. In His anger He will destroy you, and He will blot
you out from under the heavens (Ibid. iii.65, 66), because ye have
swept away His churches, and have hacked in pieces the sheep of His
pasture. Those who pass on the road shall smite together their hands at
you (201), and shall hiss, and wag their heads, and say, "This is ARBIL
[the city] which God hath cursed!" (Ibid. ii. 15).

CHAPTER XIX

THE DEATH OF MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA

Then the Catholicus, and the Mongols, and the clergy
who were with
him, who had come from the Amir GAIDJAK to bring him, went to the
village of BETH SAYYADHE, but with great fear, and terror, and great
anguish and affliction. And they stayed in the village for.a few days
until they had collected some money, which they gave to the messenger
of the Amir DJOPAN, and to the one hundred men who had come from the
Amir GAIDJAK, and to the KURDS, who were with them. Then they departed
and went to the Camp, on the 8th day of the month Tammuz (July) of this
year (A. D. 1310).

And the Catholicus visited the princess, the wife of
the Amir
GAIDJAK, and she paid him great honour and also sent men (202) with him
to the Camp. When he arrived he went straightway to visit the great
Amir DJOPAN, who saw him, and paid him the honour which was his due,
and thence he went to the city; and all the Amirs were well acquainted
with his history. And he went to the victorious king and blessed him
according to custom, and placed the cup in his hands, and the king
likewise gave him the cup, but neither of them spake a word with the
other. And sorely afflicted, the Catholicus went forth from the
presence, for he had intended if the king had questioned him to make
known to him all that had happened to himself and to his flock. At this
treatment his heart was broken grievously, and he sat down there for a
month of days, hoping that, peradventure, some new thing might happen,
or that some one would ask him about what had happened. And when
certain necessary business connected with the Cell and the Christians
had been accomplished, he went back and came to the; monastery which he
had built by the side MARAGHAH. And he made up his mind that he would
never again go to the Camp, saying, "I am wearied (or disgusted) with
the service the Mongols."

(203) And in the year of the Greeks one thousand six
hundred and
twenty-two (A.D. 1310-11) he passed the winter in the monastery In the
summer he went to the city of TABHRIZ because he heard that the Amir
IRNADJIN--may our Lord preserve his life!--had arrived there; and the
Catholicus having come thither met him straightway. And IRNADJIN paid
him great honour, and he and his wife [KEKHSHEK], the daughter of King
AHMAD, the son of the deceased King Hulagu, gave him gifts and
presents. And the princess [KEKHSHEK] was greatly honoured in the
kingdom, because the victorious King [ULJAITO] had taken her daughter
[KUTLUKSHAH KHATUN] to wife, and she was then the greatest of his
wives. The amount of money which the Amir IRNADJIN and his wife gave to
the Catholicus was ten thousand [dinars], which are [equal to] sixty
thousand zuze (£5,000) and two riding horses. And the Amir also
gave a village to the church MAR SHALITA, the holy martyr, for his dead
father was laid therein, and his mother and his wives were buried
therein (204).

The Catholicus passed the winter of the year of the
Greeks one
thousand six hundred and twenty-three (A.D. 1311-1I2) in the monastery
and the summer also. And when his case was represented to the king by
the Council he bestowed upon him five thousand dinars ( £2,500)
which came to him for his maintenance every year. And the king also
gave him villages [in the neighborhood' of the city of BAGHDAD.

Now up to this year the number of the Fathers,
Metropolitans and
Bishops which he has ordained for flocks by layings on of hands, is
seventy-five. Thus are they. He lived in the monastery which he had
built until the year of the Greeks, ne e thousand six hundred and
twenty-nine [A.D. 1317]. He died on the night of the [Saturday
preceding] the Sunday [of the prayer] "Ma shebhih mashkenakh "How
glorious is Thy habitation"), the 15th day of the month the latter
Teshri (November), and was laid in the monastery which he had built.
May his memory be for blessing! And may the prayers of MAR
YAHBH-ALLAHA, the Catholicus, and RABBAN SAWMA be upon us, and upon the
world, (205), to the uttermost limit thereof, and upon the Holy Church
and her children.

And to God be glory, and honour, and praise, and
worship, for ever
and ever. Amen and Amen.

Here endeth this "History of MAR YAHBH-ALLAHA, the
Catholicus and
Patriarch of the East, and of RABBAN SAWMA, the Visitor-General." And
to God be constant glory, and to the sinner who wrote these lines, may
there be forgiveness of debts, and remission of sins in the terrible
Hall of judgement! Amen.

BAR HEBRAEUS, GREGORY ABU'L-FARAJ. Chyonicon
Syriacum, 1789, edited
and translated by P. J. Bruns and G. G. Kirsch 2 vols. Syriac and
Latin, Leipzig. An edition of this Chronicle was published by Bedjan at
Paris in 1890.

[In this work there is a full account of the
founding of the
American Mission to the Nestorians at Urmiyah and the establishment of
the famous printing press from which so many valuable works in Syriac
and Fallaelu have issued. The debt which Syriac scholars owe to Perkins
and his colleagues, W. R. Stocking, A. L. Holliday, Dr. Grant, E.
Breath (the printer), J. L. Merrick, Lieut.-Col. Stoddard, W. Jones,
and B. Labaree, cannot be estimated.]

PHILLIPS, G. The Doctrine of Addai, London, I876

POLO, MARCO. The Book of Sey Marco Polo, the
Venetian, concerning
the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. Translated by Henry Yule, 2
vols., London, 1875. [Contains much valuable information about
Nestorians, and dealings of the Mongol il-Khans with them.]

FOOTNOTES

1 See The
Travels and Adventures of Three Princes of Sarendip. Translated from
the Persian into French and from thence done in English,London,
MDCCXXII (Brit. Mus. Press-mark 12510 bbb 22).

2 I It
is nowhere stated in
the Syriac text of the narrative translated in this volume that Bar
Sawma and Mark were sent to worship in Jerusalem by Kublai Khan, the
Kakhan, but this fact does not invalidate the assertion of Bar Hebraeus
that they were. Bar Hebraeus lived in Maraghah, which the Mongols had
made one of their capitals, and his position in the city gave him the
opportunity of learning what the plans and aspirations of the Mongols
were. And though he was a Jacobite, he was well acquainted with the
politics of the Nestorian Church. Moreover, he knew, as did every other
instructed Christian and Jew and Armenian, that all the Kakhans, from
Chingiz downwards, and all the fl-Khans, had wanted to wrest Jerusalem
from the Saracens, and that it was the dream of Kublai Khan to get
possession of the Holy City before he died. Further, he knew well that
two simple monks could never have made their way from Pekin to Maraghah
unless they had been provided with a written authority to travel from'
Kublai Khan. Bar Hebraeus calls this document a "pukdana"and his Chronicle
shows that he used this word to translate the Mongolian word yarlikh.
This was a letter, stamped with the great seal of Kakban, or Khan,
in which the king called upon all officials, and all and sundry other
individuals, to facilitate the journey of the bearer, and to render him
any assistance that he might require. Its modern equivalent among the
Turks was the "Buyuruldi."It seems to me a fact that Kublai Khan wanted
information about the state of affairs in Jerusalem, and that he felt
he was more likely to get it from a couple of monks, whose ostensible
object was to pray at the Holy Places for the salvation of their souls,
than from envoys who were great officers of State. The monks being
Christians, would be received without suspicion by the Christian
communities in Syria and Palestine. And they would learn from them
whether there was a possibility that any of the Christian kings of
Eastern Europe would assist the Mongols with armed forces if they
marched on Jerusalem. The use of the word "pukdana "by Bar Hebraeus,
shows that he was well acquainted with the usages of the Mongols when
they sent officials and others on missions. A high official of State
was always given a "paiza,"i.e. an inscribed gold or silver. tablet,
and a yarlikh, but for two humble monks the yarlikk would be
sufficient. Therefore, Bar Hebraeus uses the word "pukdana."And Bar
Hebraeus was well acquainted with the character of Kublai Khan, for he
describes him as "a king, just and wise, a lover of the Christians, and
one who honoured scribes, and learned men, and physicians (headers) of
every nationality "(Chronicle of Dynasties, ed. Bedjan, p. 514,
11. 14-16).

4 The
figures in heavy type
within brackets on this and following pages refer to the numbers of the
pages in Bedjan's edition (the second) of the Syrian text, and are
added to facilitate reference to this text.

6 Or
perhaps the meaning is,
"was sweet water found wherewith to load (i.e. to fill) the
water-skins."

7 The
terseness of this
sentence renders it almost ununderstandable. The Patriarch having
decided to make Mark Metropolitan Bishop, wished to give him a Syriac
name, and to hear him called "Mar(i)"i.e. "My Lord,"but he could not
make up his mind as to the name Mark should in future be known by.
Therefore, he resorted to "pious divinations."He wrote certain names on
slips, and laid them face downwards on the Altar and, presumably,
prayed. Whether someone, either the Patriarch or a Priest, then drew
out a slip as in a lottery, or whether the slip bearing the chosen name
separated itself from the other slips under some supernatural
influence, cannot be said.

8
Chabot identfied him with
John of Jerusalem, who, in 1286 went to Germany to arrange for te
coronation of Rudolph of Hapsburg.

9
Bedjan has a long note on
the poll-tax (p. 111) which I translate here:--"In the year of our Lord
692, 'Abd al-Malik laid a capitation tax on the Syrians. And he issued
a strict edict that every man should go to his country, and to his
village, and to his father's house; and that every man should be
registered by name, and [should state] whose son he was, and [declare]
his vineyard, and olive [trees], and his possessions, and his children,
and everything that he had. From this began [the custom] of levying the
tax on the skulls of men. From this began all the evils who have burst
upon the people until this present. The kings took tribute from the
earth, not from men. And from this the children of Hagar began to
subjugate the children of Aram with the subjugation of the Egyptians.
But woe be to us! for we have sinned. Slaves have dominion over us.
Behold this is the first capitation tax which the Arabs levied.
"Written by Mar Dionysius, the Patriarch of the Jacobites, in the year
of our Lord 755.

10
He defeated the Egyptians
with great slaughter at Homms and besieged Damascus.

11
Gaidjak married Tutukai,
the fourth daughter of Hulagu; her mother was a slave of Dokuz Khatun.

12 I
can find no equivalent
in the Bible for this proverb, But the Assyriologists have shown
recently that the Babylonians believed that toothache was caused by a
worm at the root of the tooth; it is possible that the proverb quoted
above is connected with this belief. See the Legend of the Worm, in
Thompson, R. C., Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. II, p. 160
f.